A Path To Freedom
by Vinzelles
Summary: Kamakura Orochi, despite being an orphan and somewhat of a loner, leads a fairly decent life, and yet he's unsatisfied by it. One evening a black haired woman appears before him and asks for his help. This is the encounter that will change everything... (Hiatus, gonna try to write something different to get back my groove. Details in the latest chapter)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, Vinzelles here. I have yet to figure out how this site works so please bear with me as I try to at least make this story look less messy. So, this is "A Path to Freedom", my original-but-kinda-not story based on HS:DXD. I have to reiterate the warnings you, the readers, have seen on the preview, and add a few that didn't make it to the "front page" so to speak. I feel I have the responsibility to at least tell you all what kind of story you're dealing with, so here we go:**

 **1\. This story is OC-centric. No Issei, anywhere. Ever. So don't ask for him. I might add the Boosted Gear somewhere down the line, but if I do it won't be related to the protagonist in any way whatsoever.**

 **2\. Most of the main cast will not appear, mostly because they piss me off. I've kept some, but I have yet to decide the roles for some of them. The first arc has already been written, and the second has been started as of the moment I'm writing this.**

 **3\. I have decided to blatantly steal characters from other various places, the only half-original thing will be occasionally their names if they don't fit this universe. They will be explained as they are introduced in the cliffnotes at the end of the chapter they appear in, and I'm gonna say it right now, I own nothing aside from my OC, and shall give credit where credit is due. Expect original arcs or micro-arcs alongside the usual ones as the story progresses. I might also throw in references to other shows if I feel like it, and will of course highlight them accordingly and explain them at the bottom.**

 **4\. English is not my native language. I'm Italian. I have a very good English but I'm still prone to mistakes even after having people I know and trust proofread the chapters and even after doing it myself multiple times. So be patient and if you happen to find any don't hesitate to tell me, once I figure this stuff out I'll definitely look into them.**

 **5\. Rating is M for language and blood, but don't expect lemons, since I just started writing and I have no idea of how to write one of those. For this same reason, don't expect experienced writer level quality from this fic either, especially when it comes to character descriptions; it is a flaw I'll try to correct eventually.**

 **6\. Updates will be probably weekly as time goes on, but with some luck I might be able to shorten the delay a bit, and for the time being they'll come out fairly often so that I can quickly learn how the site works. It all depends on how fast I get used to this, fundamentally.**

 **...Phew, I think I've said enough for now. I'll see you at the bottom. Please review, any criticism is welcome as long as it is constructive. And don't chew on me too hard, k? :)**

 **Enjoy.**

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Chapter 1 - Prologue

Kuoh Academy.

A fairly average school in Japan, with average students, average teachers and average classrooms. And yet, it's in this school that the occult lurks, far from the human eye. The city in which this academy resides is in fact supervisioned by those creatures commonly referred to as "devils". These creatures have successfully hidden themselves among humans, especially thanks to their physionomy that is, strangely enough, so similar to that of a human, and they tend to keep watch over the unawares in order to protect them from the truth of this ugly world full of hatred, opportunism and discrimination; to protect them from other races (or even Devils themselves sometimes) who might be willing to take advantage of them in some way. Due to their lifespan being incredibly large, they are even able to disguise themselves as the above mentioned average students more often than not, thanks to their almost-eternally young body, and they create exclusive circles in order to carry out their duties without any interference.

Kamakura Orochi was completely oblivious to these facts as he walked back home after a normal day of school alongside one of his classmates and only friend, one Nishijima Unryuu. Orochi was a fairly normal boy, despite his background which almost nobody was privy of. He was in fact an orphan, _officially speaking,_ and as such had to live for a long while with several other children in a single building with adults watching over him. Well, "watching" was kind of an exaggeration in his case, since he had been in his fair amount of fights with other kids, with nobody trying to stop these altercations to his displeasure. He knew why the fights had happened but the reasons behind those abusive actions truly baffled him even as a child.

* * *

Apparently he had appeared out of nowhere, standing in front of the orphanage with just a piece of paper in his hand, with his name written on it, his dirty clothes on his form, coagulated blood on his temple and no recollection of how he got there in the first place, until one of the gardeners noticed his presence. As far as the other kids were concerned, he was considered as a literal ghost, both in appearance, as evident from his snow white hair and red eyes, and behaviour as well since he never tried to get along with other people. He never felt the need, it wasn't worth the effort, he felt. He always refused to force his presence, aware of his so called 'popularity' and the silly reasoning behind it. He had never done anything about it, it was pointless, they were children, and deep down he knew that as long as their fear was radicated in their hearts, nothing good would come out of talking to them. He had left them alone, so that he could be left alone himself, as he tried to come to terms with where he was and why he was there.

It was a struggle: he only remembered that he felt the need to _run away, as far as possible from where he previously was,_ and somehow ended up in front of an orphanage. _They_ would never find him there, because it would make no sense for them to come there of all places. Aside from that, he actually really needed the relief of not being bothered at all, so he kept himself away from the other kids. The bad popularity he had was welcomed as an effective shield.

Until one day, one of the kids felt braver than usual.

Orochi was sitting under a tree minding his own business as usual when a rolling ball came under his view. He sit there observing it until one of the kids came over to retrieve it, keeping himself at some distance however.

"...Give it back."

Orochi had raised his head at what sounded like an order, his eyes staring at the kid. The poor boy was shaking; no wonder, all that entered the ghost's field of vision was lost forever, or so the kids were thinking. 'Tch, silly rumors...' Orochi often thought when he heard them whisper. After pondering what to do, he decided to stand up and give a simple answer.

"...3 more meters and you can get it yourself. Put some effort into it next time, will you?"

He then kicked the ball forward slightly, as it reached the halfway point between himself and the other kid. He wasn't having any of it however.

"What's wrong with you, ghost? I said give it back."

"I just did. Stop whining and step forward."

That was enough of a provocation for the kid to ignore the ball, run at him in anger and punch him in the stomach. It needs to be understood that Orochi was physically very weak back then, hence why he crumbled immediately to the ground, and was left at the mercy of an angry preschooler. Then two. Then four. From then on he had been constantly bullied and beaten by multiple people, since the kids had realized that there was nothing to be afraid of after all, and seeked some sort of vengeance for making them scared like that.

It didn't last long.

After two weeks of abuse _he stopped feeling pain from the blows._

Another two weeks later _he wasn't even flinching._

The reward for their efforts in making him pay was absolutely nothing. After a single month, the purpose ceased to exist so they had to go back to when they were ignoring him. They had to, because somehow _the ghost had gotten scarier with time._ Orochi did notice the sudden weakness of the blows, and did notice a sudden rise of anger whenever they tried to hurt him, but he had a feeling that if he actually retaliated _this time_ , he would become the one in the wrong. And he didn't see a reason to strike back either when the calm returned, considering the fact that for some reason he couldn't fathom he wasn't feeling pain anymore and as such there was no valid reason to raise his own fists, since it was a waste of effort.

It was unbelievable. 'This isn't normal, right?' he thought. He had to be sure. That same night he tried to hold the flame of a candle out of curiosity, and was left with burn marks and tears. As he laid in his bed trying to ignore the pain from his crudely bandaged hand, he decided.

'I don't get it. I don't think I ever will, so... I'll just leave it at that and try to forget about it...'

And forget he did. He had never been interested in normal sports, so he never paid any mind to the fact that his body that _was supposed to be weak_ wasn't as weak anymore. Eventually he became interested in kickboxing and took a few courses when he became old enough, in order to avoid a repeat of what happened in his earliest life. Unavoidably, he got involved in a few more fights in his middle school, mostly to stop other bullies from doing their thing, where once again he realized that he came out with his clothes a lot cleaner than they should have been, and yet didn't pay much mind to it.

Eventually in the last year of middle school he was forced by one of the girls he protected, one of many victims of those bullies, to become friends, much to his chagrin since he just wasn't interested and only intervened because he thought it was the right thing to do. Which leads us to now...

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"...Hey, Orochi-kun, want to hang out for a bit today?" Unryuu inquired in a timid voice, her own white hair bouncing in a single braid behind her back.

"Sorry, I'm not in the mood." managed to say Orochi before having to stifle a yawn.

"...But aren't you bored lately? ...You keep whining about it too..."

"Yes, very bored. So bored, in fact, that I don't feel like doing anything."

"Should I be concerned?"

Orochi had to raise an eyebrow at that question. "Not at all, it's none of your business anyway so don't worry about me." he said, adding a dismissive gesture for good measure.

"...at least try to find something to do if you're in such a slump."

"I'm trying, trust me. The best solution would be finding a small part-time job, but juggling myself between that and the school sounds like the kind of pain in the ass I don't wanna deal with, sooo..."

"...So?"

"I'm considering going back to kickboxing."

"Please don't." was Unryuu's immediate answer in a flat tone. "You're fairly strong, but I don't think getting into fights is the right way to get rid of your boredom..."

"I said 'considering', calm down. I need some time to think about alternatives, too."

"And you're going to stay bored until then, and at worst even beyond that point."

Orochi couldn't deny that logic, not in front of the person that knew him best.

"...can't say you're wrong there. I hope it's just a phase."

Unryuu had a distant look in her eyes all of a sudden, but Orochi didn't notice.

"...I hope so too. But since you need a distraction right now, I should be able to help."

"Hm?" mumbled Orochi, curiosity etched in his tone.

"I recieved this little pamphlet from a lady today in front of the school." Unryuu whipped out a small piece of paper before showing it to her friend. A pentagram was printed on it, there were even an address and a QR code for a site of some kind. "I've been told that if you ever feel the need to ask for help but can't vocalize the thought you simply need to hold onto this paper and wish intensely for something, and soon enough it'll truly appear!"

Orochi was mildly annoyed at that statement, but not because of its overall silliness. "Nishijima, I can't help but think you made a jab at my personality just now!"

"Whatever are you talking about?" said Unryuu with a wide smile, seemingly unaware of her companion's anger.

"...Whatever, I'll take it if it makes you feel happy." He wasn't going to use it, but he also wasn't going to risk throwing it away just yet. Unryuu had her ways of knowing what he did or didn't do, he knew from experience.

"I hear it also works online as long as you use a QR code reader and input a password in the specified site. So go and try it, okay? And don't you dare look at something else while you're at the PC..." Unryuu added, a sudden menacing aura enveloping her.

"...Just what kind of opinion do you have of me..." Orochi took the paper and muttered, not missing the hidden meaning of Unryuu's last statement. He also had to struggle to keep his eyes on her face rather than her... more than prominent assets, given what she had just implied.

"See you tomorrow..." Unryuu said those parting words as she went her way, smiling slightly as her aura disappeared.

There were several things that Orochi failed to understand, and Unryuu's strange smiles were one of them. He was never able to figure out the meaning behind them, but since they weren't a big deal he never thought too long about it. What was more important was deciding what to do with his life in that moment.

Thinking about it was harder than he initially believed, so even that thought process was abandoned within minutes. He eventually reached his house, which was really nothing special since it was provided by the orphanage. That facility was destined to those who had grown enough to be able to live a life on their own but weren't old enough to rent their own place or have a full-time job for that matter. He shared the building with a few others but he never bothered to connect with them so it was like they didn't exist. It suited him fine, he didn't need more people forcing their way into his life and since it was a pretty big building, he was allowed to have a fairly decent living place in terms of size. Having finally reached home, Orochi didn't waste time in taking off his Kuoh uniform and changing into casual clothes, a simple orange shirt, blue jeans and a black jacket.

The evening was predictably uneventful, so Orochi, unwilling to go to sleep just yet, decided eventually to put his shoes back on and have an early night stroll around the neighborhood. He threw a single glance at the paper Unryuu gave him hours earlier. "Hmph, sorry but superstitions are not my thing, Nishijima." he said aloud while going out the door.

During the stroll he found himself at a nearby park, the fountain still working despite the time. He wandered over, and looked at himself in the reflection.

"...What should I do?"

He suddenly heard a shout. "Hey, you over there!".

Orochi blinked and turned around, noticing an unfamiliar black haired young girl looking at him twenty meters away.

"Yes, you! I need a huge favor, do you mind helping me out?"

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 **Hey there. Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Let's start with Orochi Kamakura. As far as appearances go, you can use Adelheid Bernstein from the KOF series for reference, but with different hair color (you could say it's pretty much the Omega version from MUGEN, maybe with less muscle). He is otherwise completely original.**

 **Next, Unryuu Nishijima. This is Unryuu from Kancolle, Nishijima is a surname I added for convenience's sake. Physical appearance is the same, but I don't know about the behaviour, nor the tendencies. I'll have to use this approach towards some of the characters not belonging to DXD in this fic, since I know nothing about them personality-wise, and I simply picked them because I liked their appearance.**

 **Does this make me superficial? Probably, but let me tell you, I'm kind of biased towards a certain franchise I really, REALLY like, and the characters coming from that place will be multiple and undoubtedly better described.**

 **I know, I shouldn't be partial as a writer, but I'll always prefer honesty when it comes to creating a fic. If I don't like a character for petty reasons, and as such decide to not have him/her show up in the fic, I'll say it without fear. This is what I believe.**

 **I've foreshadowed events that will be explained later on, such as Orochi's life before the orphanage. I don't know how much later on, but eventually we'll get there. I hope. XD**

 **That's about all I have to say for now. As I told you, the readers, before, at least for the first arc, I plan to upload fairly frequently in order to find a pace I'm comfortable with.**

 **See you soon! Ciao!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, Vinzelles here.**

 **Welcome back to A Path To Freedom. I hope you liked the first chapter, although there isn't much of a story yet. Today I'll actually show the "encounter" that was mentioned in the... synopsis? I have no idea of what the descriptions of the stories are actually called, my bad. As I said before, I have a good English but it's certainly not perfect.**

 **Anyway, the encounter. Obviously you know who the black-haired person is if you're reading this, because if you don't then what the heck are you doing here? ...But I suppose one should never assume.**

 **I won't say anything else for now, but know this: I intend to have her stick around longer than what you'd be used to, readers.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

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Chapter 2 - The Strangest Meeting

Orochi found himself looking towards the girl shouting from afar. He didn't recognize her, but didn't think much of it. He jogged towards her.

"Good evening" he greeted politely as he stopped in front of her. "You said you needed something? I'll help you out if I can."

Orochi's disposition with people, as long as it didn't involve 'getting all buddy-buddy' as he called it, had actually gotten a lot better in the years. He built up a level of patience with them he didn't think he could achieve (he sure had needed it sometimes), and realized soon that he wasn't okay with leaving them to their fate. Such a thing had happened to him, and he did not wish that kind of suffering to anyone, so he decided he would help out whenever it was in his power to do so. He didn't even have to worry about who he would leave behind, like a certain spiky-haired boy in a novel he started to read recently. (1)

"Thank you, I appreciate it." she quickly bowed. Her appearance was nothing special, with a simple pink blouse and a black skirt covering her form.

"You see, I'm a bit nervous about some stuff I have to take care of in the near future, and I really, really need a _stress reliever..._ "

"...Okay?" Orochi was understandably confused. Stress reliever? He wasn't sure of what he could do to help this stranger with this particular request. "I don't know if I'm the right person to ask for this, but I guess I'll bite. What do you need exactly?"

The girl all of a sudden glared fiercely at him.

" _I just need you to die right now._ "

Something shiny materialized in her right hand. Something Orochi was barely able to recognize as a spear of some sorts. A pair of black wings sprouted out of the girl's back as she thrusted towards the seemingly stunned boy.

It did not connect.

As the pink spear of light passed through thin air, it was the girl's turn to be stunned as the boy, the "human" before her simply sidestepped to his right to dodge the linear attack, his red eyes gazing at her. Her stunned expression immediately gave space to pain as she felt a closed left hand slam into her diaphragm.

She couldn't help arching forward and holding her abdomen as spit and bile threatened to leak from her mouth. A whisper reached her; the human had leaned forward himself before he spoke into her ear.

" _Sorry, can't help you with that._ "

The boy's tone was the same she had just used to state her intentions. It made her angry. Incredibly angry. In a split second a new spear appeared in her other hand, aimed to his throat. He merely spun around the blow, his red eyes fixed on the bright weapon as it passed centimeters from his flesh. Having moved once again to her side, he completed the spin and elbowed the back of her head with his left arm.

The girl just could not believe what was happening as she laid on the ground after the last blow. Having gained distance as the girl pondered what to do, Orochi spoke softly.

"...You'd think that someone with wings would be faster than this. Something must be wrong with your body..." he mused, putting his thumb on his chin in a pensive manner. "What _are_ you anyway?" he added, addressing the winged lady on the ground with genuine curiosity in his voice.

She slowly got up. "If there's anything wrong with something, it has to be your head..." she answered, her glare somehow intensified from before.

"Oh? How so? Do tell." was the response, the white haired boy not missing a beat despite not receiving an answer to his question.

"...Why aren't you afraid?"

Orochi blinked, slightly confused at the question. "What are you talking about? A lady with black wings trying to kill me for no valid reason? Anyone would be scared, and I'm no exception. It's just that you don't really seem all that threatening." he answered honestly.

"Heh, are you sure about that?" The girl smirked, once again with spears at the ready in her hands.

"Pretty sure. After all, _your hand has been trembling since before I struck you._ "

She froze up at those words. '...I knew it. Something's definitely wrong. It almost looks like she's forcing herself...' Orochi thought. "If you're here with the specific purpose of killing me you'd better pick up the pace, I'm giving you the time of day out of sheer boredom here, and you'll never reach me with such sloppy moves. If you're not here to kill me, however, I'd rather not waste my time so get lost." He said.

"You... are you implying I'm weak?!"

"Aren't we all, to some extent?"

"I'm getting real tired of your smart mouth!" At that, she threw one of her spears towards the boy's abdomen. Once again, he easily dodged.

'Her movements are incredibly predictable for some reason. Too linear. It's almost sad...' He thought, as the girl suddenly closed in, ready to lunge again after forcing him to move from his spot. Still too slow of an approach for Orochi, who sidestepped again to the girl's right before planting a foot right in her cheek, the kick sending her to the ground once more.

At that point, Orochi's mild amusement up to that point had already turned back into boredom. In his attempt to find something to talk about, since the fight was getting nowhere, he couldn't come up with anything, so he decided to figuratively take a step back. "...Let's start from scratch. Why are you here? And don't lie to me this time."

The girl stood back up as she nursed her bruised cheek. "What made you think I was lying? You don't know anything about my business here, do you?"

"Fair enough. So, assuming you were telling the truth, you simply picked someone to kill at random to calm your nerves, which implies you're unsettled by something. In other words, the one who's afraid here is _you._ "

The girl scoffed at that. "Hah, you think this Raynare is afraid of a human of all things?"

"I never said that. The reason doesn't have to be me after all. What is worrying you? I did say I would help you." He smiled. He meant it, too. The girl, Raynare, was not a threat and seemed to be in distress, so he didn't even mind her attempt to take his life. "Could it be that the 'stuff' you have to take care of is bothering you for some reason?"

"It's none of your business!"

"True, but this fight seems pointless to me, and I can't exactly talk about the weather or something with you, can I? So inevitably, the only topic worth discussing is your state of mind." He responded with nonchalance.

"ENOUGH! I will not tolerate a human talking down to me!" Her glare was full of hatred by now, her hands now steadily gripping a new pink spear. "I''LL KILL YOU!"

"Try it if you can."

The girl lunged forward once again, but this time no hesitation could be found in her movements. Her spear was still missing its mark, but Orochi's dodges were a lot more narrow. "Ah, that's much better, I knew you could do it!" said Orochi with a smirk of his own as he dodged more blows by a hair's breadth. "Keep it up, I'm actually having fun here!"

Raynare grunted in rage as she kept thrusting and swinging at thin air. 'Why?! Why can't I hit him? Is this guy really human?!'

One of her swings, a bit too powerful, eventually overreached, leaving her open. Orochi didn't waste the chance and closed in in an instant before brutally uppercutting the winged woman.

On the ground again. Raynare could not understand what was happening. Orochi's amusement was waning again, especially because it seemed impossible to help the girl as long as she didn't cooperate, so he decided to knock her out and finish that farce of a battle.

"...How?" Orochi stopped as he heard a low and weak voice from the girl laying in front of the fountain. "...I have to know... how can you be this strong?..." It looked like Raynare had already run out of steam, if her panting wasn't enough of a clue.

"No idea," The boy answered honestly. "To be fair, I still think of myself as weak despite what you've seen and the pain you felt. By all means, I was not supposed to win this fight, but that's what ended up happening so I'm just as confused as you are."

"...How pathetic, a fallen angel defeated by a human..."

'Fallen angel? Such a thing exists?' Orochi couldn't help thinking that. "Shouldn't you do something about it then? Even I, the victim, feel that this situation is just wrong." he said.

Raynare had to agree to that. She might as well tell the boy what her reasoning was for her actions, she concluded. She was ashamed of herself for more than one reason. She had to know if something could be salvaged, even if she had to hear a human's opinion.

"...I arrived in this city with three other Fallens yesterday. We were waiting for a certain someone to arrive in this city. We intended to steal this someone's magical artifact in order to gain power."

Orochi's interest perked up again.

"...The item we're after is bound to that person's soul, and extracting it will kill her."

Orochi was now _very interested._

"Mind you, I have no qualms about killing people. But I didn't truly feel that this was the right way to go about gathering strength. After tonight, I realize I was right. ...A human, someone who shouldn't even be aware of my existence unless he's about to die, has completely defeated me. So I'll ask again. What it is that makes you strong?"

"...If I had to guess, one of the factors would be experience." Orochi said, after pondering his answer for a few seconds. "I faced many opponents of varying ability over the course of my life, be it out of necessity or because I felt the need to protect someone. Eventually I was able to tell exactly how the person in front of me would move, how he would behave, how he would react to my words. _They become predictable, and there's no excitement in that._ "

Raynare just laid there, absorbing it all. "But that's not all there is to it, I think" Orochi added, "A solid drive to move forward without sacrificing your morals, that is also a requirement I believe. As far as you're concerned, if you don't mind killing, go ahead and kill, as long as it's not me or someone I know I couldn't care less." He was being completely honest here. He would not beat himself up if someone couldn't be saved because it was impossible for him to intervene in time. It would be meaningless. "But if your current path to power doesn't satisfy you, you can just choose another one. It's not even that hard for someone like you, you know?"

Raynare raised her head slightly to look at the boy. He was smiling again. "I mean, you have wings, for God's sake! It's about time you use them for something, don't you think? Just fly above the clouds and you'll definitely see your ideal path."

The fallen angel laid her head back down, thinking hard about the boy's words. She eventually conceded. "...I'll consider it. Leave me alone now, I still need to catch my breath."

"Still? You ought to do some cardio, missy."

"Shut it. And my name is Raynare!"

"I understood that much, thank you. I'm Kamakura Orochi, by the way. I'll put some effort into remembering your name so you better remember mine because if we meet again and you call me 'human' I promise I'll start breaking bones. See you around..." With that the 'human' turned around and walked away as he waved to the girl he just fought, finally feeling tired enough that he felt he should be able to sleep.

Raynare was left alone with her thoughts. The bastard had a smart mouth, but he said what he thought while taking into consideration her position and her wavering resolve. Nothing about what he said was wrong, she had to admit, but she still had doubts.

However, she knew exactly how to make them disappear.

"The strength of one's resolve is what matters, huh... But does what you said apply to yourself? If I put you into an impossible situation, will that 'strength' of yours be the deciding factor, Kamakura Orochi? Will you put yourself in danger if the threat to your life is real? If you show me definite proof of your power, it won't be all that hard to make a decision for myself after all..."

A quiet laugh echoed through the park.

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 **(1): This is a reference to Kamijou Touma from A Certain Magical Index. This "Index", who is an actual person having a weird name, is often left behind while Touma goes to save the day with his magical-but-scientific-but-it's-not really-clear-yet right hand of OP-ness.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Raynare, huh? ...She's kind of weak right now, not even a match for Orochi. That might or might not change, keep this in mind. Usually she dies very early, and I'm not okay with that. Usually she has this very bright idea of stealing magical thingamajigs to gain power, and I'm not okay with that. So, I decided to keep her alive and actually have her fulfill a proper role that you'll see... probably at the end of the second arc. You could say she's even destined to become a member of the main cast of APoF. But I've said enough about that for now.**

 **Orochi doesn't turn into a Devil. Often enough, Issei, or whatever protagonist a writer decides to put in his place, gets reincarnated after getting killed by Raynare, or "insert Fallen Angel random name here". I don't judge. The point is, that scenario doesn't suit this story, so our protagonist will keep his humanity, or whatever is left of it.**

 **"What about his strength? Does he have an ability?" you might ask. Well, obviously he does but there's a catch to it. I'll tell you right now, it won't be explained until the second arc so please wait patiently until I get to that point. There IS one thing I can tell you about it though: it is part of an almost completely original set of abilities that very few possess. The only not-original thing about them is their general name, which is inspired by a different anime where stuff like _that_ happens all the time when it comes to certain people and their ridiculous skills.**

 **That's all I'm willing to tell you people for now. Next time, self-reflection.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, see you soon. Ciao!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path To Freedom.**

 **I happened to notice that I wrote the name of the fic slightly wrong in the last chapter. It's just an "of" rather than a "to" but it still pisses me off. I'll fix that when I'm done here though so you won't notice at all, hahaha!**

 **Anyway, today we've got an intermission of sorts, something to put between battles as an excuse to delve into an "old" character's personality or introduce a new one altogether. I'm gonna go ahead and do both in this chapter, while Raynare prepares... something... behind the curtains. It won't have a title, because I'm bad at titles- um, I mean because it's just an intermission and I don't feel it needs one. It IS kinda necessary to read at least the second half of this intermission, lest you find yourself confused at the start of the next chapter. I do look forward to publishing it (incidentally, the next two chapters will end the first arc)!**

 **Before we start, I actually got a review! So I'll go ahead and answer it real quick:**

 **ArcherGenes - Thank you for the review! Good question. My honest answer is that I have yet to decide that. This is my first time writing so I don't know if I can handle that kind of entertainment, so to speak, when I create stuff. If I DO decide to go and do pairings, and of course I'll adjust the genres accordingly if I do, I think I'll go with a single pairing (which might not necessarily be Raynare but again, I haven't decided), maybe two or three but that's all. No harems here, I definitely don't have enough confidence for that e.e**

 **There are going to be a bunch of line breaks, just so you know. It was inevitable, I had to set up the next scenario properly and I need all this stuff, more or less. Apologies for that if it ends up uncomfortable.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.  
**

* * *

Intermission 1

Orochi reached his dorm room safely that night and went to sleep. He was slightly concerned due to the fact that Raynare might have decided to come and kill him in his bed, but by the time this thought had taken form in his mind he was already asleep.

Nobody came that night.

* * *

The next day, Orochi got up like usual, washed himself like usual, had breakfast like usual and walked out towards his school like usual. The events of the last night almost seemed forgotten if you knew about them and looked at his currently serene face. What was unusual, as in 'unusual enough that even he would notice', was the slight spring in his step. He felt in great shape and light as a feather, he was in a very good mood and it had been a while since the last time he experienced this level of personal satisfaction.

He reached the usual crossroad where he met sometimes with Unryuu before or after school, and even felt like waiting for her to arrive. Waiting for someone! Him of all people! He seriously felt great today and had no idea why.

After 5 minutes, he saw his friend running towards him, both her braid and her bosom bouncing about as she approached him. As usual, he forced himself to focus on her face. And he noticed the small flash of concern in Unryuu's delicate lineaments.

Once Unryuu had caught her breath, she addressed him in what seemed like hurry.

"G-Good morning, Orochi-kun! H-How are you doing?"

'Too close?!' thought Orochi as Unryuu pretty much shoved her head into his personal space and looked at him dead in the eye.

"I-I'm fine! More than fine in fact, I feel great today!" he said, managing to put back a smile in his face as he pulled back his head.

Unryuu seemed to calm down slightly at that. "Are you sure?" She still felt she had to ask, due to how strange it was for Orochi's mood to be this good this early in the morning. Or at least that's what Orochi thought was swimming in his friend's mind at the moment.

"Yeah, I feel like I can do anything today, hahaha!" He charged across the crossroad as he laughed childishly, leaving Unryuu behind in a trail of dust.

"W-Wait for me, you idiot!"

* * *

The school day in itself was otherwise uneventful. He was even paying attention to the teachers more than usual! Now _that_ was strange! He never had much trouble with the subjects of his course and scored fairly average in his tests, but whenever he was in a slump, such as yesterday and the days before, his attention span was almost nil. He knew that much, it was one of his flaws when it came to topics he didn't care much for.

When the last bell rang though, a single thought emerged from his mind. One he didn't want to deal with lest it ruined his mood.

'...What do I do now?'

He moved among the desks and reached the window of his classroom, his schoolbag in hand. He felt he had at the very least the duty to think about what had transpired at the park and analyze carefully if he made any mistakes. It was something that he thought necessary whenever a situation required him to get violent, and it also helped him as a distraction from dull thoughts. Could he have gone easier on his opponent? Did he say what he believed were the right things? Questions such as these would leave him pensive for several minutes, as he seemed to be looking at nothing outside the window, making an unreadable expression.

An expression Unryuu was familiar with.

"...You've been in a fight again." It wasn't a question. Unryuu knew him too well. 'But not well enough...' he thought.

"...yeah." Orochi decided to admit to what he did.

"Who did you send to the hospital this time?"

"No one. My opponent came out of it just a bit winded and with a few minor bruises."

Unryuu clicked her tongue. "Only you would feel happy after delivering a beating, no matter how easy you went on them..." She seemed disappointed, but Orochi didn't pay it any mind. His pondering had led to a conclusion he was satisfied with. He used the right amount of force, maybe less than he should have considering that Raynare wanted to take his life. He said what was needed to be said, he was certain of that too. He protected her identity, since Unryuu would be even more upset if she knew he had beat up a girl. And also because it was a fallen angel, a creature that wasn't supposed to exist. His friend would never believe him, he thought, so he had decided to go with half-lies.

"I'm not happy about that in particular." That was true. "I'm just glad that we actually managed to talk it out throughout the ordeal." Also true. "He needed a good talking to, and was a bit too stubborn, that's all." That was _not_ true; the total opposite in fact. If anything, Raynare was hesitating until he decided to provoke her. Not that Unryuu needed to know that little detail.

He imagined she would keep questioning him, but found himself surprised as she apparently decided to drop the subject. "Fine, I'll believe you just this once. What are you doing today? And you better not answer with 'kickboxing' or it'll be me who kicks the box you wouldn't want me to kick!"

He immediately felt fear for himself. He had never been sure if his sacred place was as sturdy as the rest of his body and had never been able to figure it out. The fear of the unknown, as usual, is more than enough to bring down to earth even the biggest airhead.

"P-Please refrain from doing that, Nishijima!" he pleaded. "I'm still in a fairly good mood and wouldn't want to ruin it by carelessly opening my mouth, so don't worry about potentially hearing what you don't want to hear, okay?!"

"Aren't you pretty much admitting that the thought crossed your miiiiiiiiindddd?"

"HOW DID YOU COME TO THAT CONCLUSION?!"

"YOU'RE ALREADY RUNNING AWAY, THAT'S HOW! COME BACK HERE!"

In all seriousness, Orochi really did not think about kickboxing. _There was no need._ His mind was focused elsewhere as he ran for his life and didn't even notice that Unryuu was not chasing him.

Instead, she stood there, glaring at the door of her classroom.

"...I'd better report this to Anya-sama..." she muttered.

* * *

Unryuu marched towards the old school building of Kuoh, where her Devil master was waiting for her arrival. She was a Devil herself, reincarnated back when she was still a child by one Anya Adramelech, Anya Adachi her human name. Anya was the elected supervisor for this city, this was her territory and she was aware of anything supernatural that happened within the city grounds.

Kamakura Orochi's abnormal existence, inevitably, did not escape her radar. As such, Unryuu recieved the order of befriending him a few years back in order to keep him under watch and make sure nothing happened to his somewhat normal life. That, at least, was the order until her master was notified of a few rogue Fallens invading the city, just when the wielder of the Sacred Gear *Twilight Healing* had decided to move to this district from a convent in Italy.

"The Fallens are only after Twilight Healing, and as such might decide to eliminate anything they would consider a threat. Kamakura-kun's abnormal aura might be enough to make him a target so keep a close eye on him. At worst, we might have to reincarnate him." was what Anya told her.

So, Unryuu had observed from the shadows Orochi's encounter with Raynare the night before. Imagine the surprise when she saw him defeat the Fallen easily! Apparently he wasn't even meant to be a target _yet,_ as evident by the fact that the Fallen engaged him on her own. In fact, it really was out of bad luck that she had stumbled into someone she could not defeat on her own. Even stranger, no attempts to his life were made in the span of almost a day after the fact, which was concerning. Even worse, she was told by phone this morning by her master that the presence of one of the 4 Fallens she had sensed had vanished from the city for some reason. Why would one of them leave exactly before Twilight Healing arrived in the city? Their behaviour didn't match their predictions, it was as if the Fallen woman had decided to go do her own thing all of a sudden...

Unryuu reached the old building, where some of the clubs were currently residing for their extra-curricular activities, her destination being the Occult Research Club. She swinged the door open and saw her master sorting papers at her desk, a young woman her own age with long burgundy hair and blood red eyes, having a slightly smaller bosom than herself, clad in her Kuoh uniform.

"Anya-sama, I have returned" said Unryuu as she closed the door.

"Welcome back. So, how was he?"

"All in one piece, at the very least. He didn't seem to be hurt at all. _I did tell you that much this morning._ "

"True, but it never hurts to double-check. Now, I have asked for permission to deal with the Fallens in the city, but apparently the Grigori needs to verify whether they have been authorized to enter or not." She clicked her tongue. "...It will take a while before we can take action, damn burocracy."

"What shall we do until then, Anya-sama?" Unryuu inquired.

"Well, _we_ have to wait until we recieve the okay from the higher-ups, but until then what I want _you_ to do in the meantime is to keep watching Kamakura-kun, in case he gets attacked again. Especially now that apparently one of the Fallens is acting independently, it's a lot harder for me to track the 'lone wolf'. We know where they are, but that woman is currently out of the city and of my jurisdiction. I wouldn't be able to locate her in time if she were to carry out an actual assassination attempt."

"Understood. I shall take my leave." Unryuu bowed and finally left the premises after receiving her new/old orders.

* * *

(3 days later)

Orochi had just arrived at his dorm. His good mood seemed to have vanished after 3 days of average school life.

He was bored again.

As he hanged his uniform to a coathanger, he noticed a piece of paper on a small table near the entrance of the door. It didn't look like the paper Unryuu had given him, since it was still abandoned somewhere in the house. He picked it up: it was a letter. He immediately felt annoyed.

"Someone entered the house to leave this thing here..." he muttered.

He opened it and read what little contents were written.

*I've thought about what you told me and I made my decision. Let's talk. I'll wait for you in front of the abandoned church. Come at 8 p.m., alone. Expect a fight.*

\- Raynare

"...Well, at the very least whatever she has planned might relieve me of my boredom...".

* * *

"Unryuu, we have finally received permission to act. We will subdue the Fallens tonight." Anya declared, internally glad that she had a chance to act after such a long wait.

"I'll get ready immediately." said Unryuu.

* * *

"Dohnaseek, I don't think Raynare will come back." said a small blonde girl in a Gothic dress.

"Think she decided to wuss out at the last moment?" inquired a blue haired woman with a maroon trenchcoat-like top open enough to reveal her cleavage.

"Doesn't matter." claimed the addressed man in a fedora and a gray trenchcoat, Dohnaseek. "We'll do it without her if need be. I have left Freed to guard the main hall. Mittelt, and you too, Kalawarner, your positions shall be in front of the entrance to the catacombs. I'll take care of the ritual."

"What are you afraid of?" said Mittelt. "The Devils haven't detected us so far so there will be nothing to do, and I kind of want to watch the ritual!"

"It's a safety measure, you fool. Just because the Devils haven't acted it doesn't mean they don't know about what we'll be doing." Dohnaseek had to point out.

"That's right" confirmed Kalawarner. "I also hope they won't come but that's too optimistic of a view. Let's go already."

"Fiiiiiiine..." drooled out Mittelt.

* * *

Raynare stood outside the gates of the church, a cloaking spell cast to prevent even her former allies from sensing her presence. She had organized all this, even using her comrades as pawns, just to see if it was enough to stop him. She couldn't hang around too long, since the Devils themselves were going to move in a matter of minutes, and she had no wish to be caught in the crossfire. _Not after making a life-changing decision._

Finally, a familiar figure emerged at the base of the stairs.

Raynare couldn't help smirking.

"Welcome, Kamakura Orochi... Glad you could make it..."

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **I hope it wasn't TOO much of a mess. ...it probably is though. If I ever come back to look at the early chapters this one is definitely going to be the first one I fix up.**

 **Anyway, new stuff.**

 **Orochi's way of thinking isn't merciful nor merciless, but an odd in-between typical of a human. What makes him peculiar in my opinion is that being an introverse person intensifies his emotions when they do come out, with varying results depending on what he feels at that moment. If he has no reason to injure his enemies then he won't go too hard on them: Raynare was not a threat, so she came out of a battle against him relatively fine. But I wonder what would happen if he didn't have or want to hold back? You'll be able to see a glimpse of that side of Orochi next chapter, I promise.**

 **There's also his boredom. He's clearly had enough of a life where nothing happens, and normality will not satisfy him at this point because he always had something superior up until high school, in a sense. Not necessarily _good_ though _,_ as you saw from the first chapter where he had been bullied harshly for a short time in his childhood. The events he witnessed, along with his inability to feel anything that comes from other people, have left him desensitized, and unable to bond properly with normal people. This will be related to his ability.**

 **Finally, Anya Adramelech. She's based on Lancer from Fate/Grand Order (Scathach is her name apparently. Huh. Didn't know that while I was writing the intro. Shows how little I know about certain characters e.e) and will probably have similar powers. I'm not too sold on a certain OP trait of hers though, and I'll have to decide whether I want to keep it or not for the third arc where she actually does things.**

 **Not much else to say. Raynare's decision will be hinted at in the next chapter and explained properly in the second arc so no spoilers there. Next time, a bunch of old stuff breaks.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, see you soon. Ciao!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path To Freedom.**

 **This chapter came in a bit late, I know. The thing is, I turned 21 the other day! So I was busy all day with my family, and didn't feel like updating this story until this morning. (It's morning here, American folks. About 9 hours of time difference!)**

 **As far as writing goes, I'm about halfway through Arc 2! It will end up a bit longer than this one, I think, since there's a bit of set-up (and by a bit, I mean 5 chapters of stuff happening within the same day, and that's _before_ Riser shows up).**

 **I can tell you it will be another 6 chapters after this one before Orochi's ability is finally revealed, but today you'll be able to see a glimpse of it. I don't think anyone can guess what it is yet, but feel free to try as you review!**

 **Not much else to say. Today, as I mentioned in the last outro, old stuff breaks.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 3 - The Raid

8 p.m.. Orochi was approaching the abandoned church where the meeting was set, when he saw a familiar winged figure.

"Welcome, Kamakura Orochi... Glad you could make it..." he heard her say as he was still a few meters away.

As he closed in he noticed that Raynare looked slightly different: she now wore very frilly clothes, a snow white blouse with a black-green skirt and tight boots. A necklace was adorning her figure, and the ends of her hair had been dyed green. Only half a meter was separating them as they stared each other down, Raynare with her arms crossed under her breasts and Orochi with his hands in his pockets.

"...I see you've remembered my name. I'm honored."

"And I see that your smart-ass responses are the same as last time."

A heavy aura of hostility was surrounding them, heavy enough that the nocturnal birds laying on the roof of the building felt the instinctive impulse to flee from the place.

Orochi had to admit that Raynare looked a lot more intimidating than a few days back. No fear and no hesitation were evident on her face now. He didn't think he would see such a face from someone that was defeated by him a few days back. Could it be that she had managed to develop a strategy against him?

"So, we meet again." Orochi started. "You told me to 'expect a fight'. Are you gonna try your luck against me once more?"

"Not today. I'll cut to the chase since the two of us don't have much time."

"...?" Orochi did not expect that answer.

"Do you remember what I told you? About the people I came in this city with, and what was my initial goal?"

"I do. What about it?"

Raynare's smirk widened. "I've dissociated myself from those guys. I've decided to settle down in this city, so be ready to hear from me again in the future because I'm not done with you."

Her smirk suddenly vanished. "But that's not why I called you here. Tonight, you are here because I want to issue a challenge."

The boy's eyes lit up with interest. 'I knew it, you can't resist...' thought the Fallen.

"The purpose of this challenge is for you to demonstrate to me how much is your so-called 'strength' worth. I'll tell you what I want you to do in this building, and if you manage to do it satisfying all the conditions, I will accept your definition of strength as valid, and shall follow that path myself."

"Interesting. I assume that I'll have to take care of the people inside, with some handicap of sorts that I'll have to bear, yes?"

She nodded. "You seem to have gotten the right idea. The owner of the magical artifact is also in there, alongside my former companions and a rogue exorcist we had hired as a guard."

"You want me to stop that ritual thing you mentioned?"

"...I was supposed to carry it out, but now that I pulled myself off of the playing field they might do their thing at their own pace. For all I know, they might have already conducted it and instead of a girl to save you'll find a corpse to bury. So no, I won't pretend that much from you."

Raynare lifted a closed hand and put out her thumb.

"First rule: don't kill anyone. After fighting you and thinking hard about our battle I realized _how much you've held yourself back_ , and I feel it's safe to say that you're perfectly capable of killing your opponents if you wanted to."

She then lifted her index finger

"Second rule: don't hold back. As long as you don't kill them you can go wild, and I want to observe you at work for a while before I have to leave."

"You have to leave? Why?"

"I'm getting to it, don't interrupt me!" Raynare scowled.

She raised her middle finger.

"Third and final rule: you're on a very unclear time-limit. The Devils overseeing this town will be here tonight at some point to intervene against the rogue Fallens that have infiltrated the city without permission, me included. They won't hesitate to kill me, _if I stay here,_ so once I detect their presence I'm going to be leaving. I will be back once I've settled this mess I'm in with the Governor." She seemed slightly distressed as she spoke. "When they arrive and they realize someone has solved the problem before them, you'll definitely get into trouble if they find out you did it, so I suggest you do the same once you're done."

Raynare took a deep breath. "That is all. Any questions?"

"Just one request." Orochi declared. "Once you manage to come back to the city, tell me what you know about these Devils. If you promise me that, I'll take this challenge."

"...Very well, I promise. Deal?" "Deal." They shook hands.

"Then get going." said Raynare. "I shall observe your fights in a cloaking spell I prepared for a little while. It only works on humans and Fallens' senses, hence the reason why I need to bolt when the Devils arrive on the scene."

Orochi felt his excitement rise as he cracked his knuckles. "Alright, this should be a decent workout session!" he shouted as he charged towards the church's door.

"...Let's see what you're truly capable of." muttered Raynare as her form vanished, a magic circle under her feet.

* * *

Orochi swung the door open. The church, unused for a long time, already smelled of rotten wood, but he was also barely able to smell iron. There were rumors about murders taking place in this former nest of Christians several months ago, and they seemed to be true if the still present stench of blood was to be believed.

"Helloooooooo, intruder! Welcome to the party!"

A white haired man dressed in a priest garb with a crazed look stepped forward from the shadows of the moonlit interns of the building.

"...Huh? What, it's just a human. You're not the one I'm interested in, shitstain. Get going before I fill you with holes!" The priest threatened.

"A priest... One who is out of his mind, at that." was the voice that came from the 'intruder'. "I think I get why God doesn't want you to represent Him."

"Hah, I don't need any God as long as I get the chance to eliminate sinners! You, too, are a sinner, aren't you? You came in here and tried to provoke me! Your sin is arrogance, and I, Freed Sellzen, will punish you for it!" Freed immediately whipped out a gun and with incredible speed charged towards the human in front of him before pulling the trigger as the muzzle aimed for the forehead.

Orochi was not ready.

*BANG*

* * *

"It seems Freed has started to work." pondered Dohnaseek as he made his preparations. The unconscious form of a blond nun was laying on a wooden bench, while a pair of silver rings on her fingers, with shining emerald gems of immense purity, were emitting a faint light.

"Don't worry, little lady, this will be over soon."

No answer came from the girl.

* * *

"Oh, someone did come!" said Mittelt excitedly after hearing a bang.

"Hmph, better get ready then, just in case." said Kalawarner, getting up from one of the benches near the altar.

They started hearing strange noises however. No guns being fired after the first shot, no swords clashing. They sounded like strong pounds against the walls.

"...Something's wrong..." Kalawarner whispered. "...I don't sense any Devils yet!"

"Huuuuh? What a pain, it's just a random human that wandered into the building then. Which means that creepy priest will deal with him easily. Which means I got all pumped for nothing!" Mittelt whined loudly.

"Shut that mouth for a moment! Listen..." Kalawarner put a hand on her comrade's mouth. "Do you hear anything from down the hall?"

"...Wo, wuai?" ("No, why?")

The noises had ceased.

"Exactly. Should I believe that someone like Freed would only shoot a single bullet?"

"To be fair, I didn't let him do anything else, so that's probably the reason."

The two Fallen women heard this voice as louder and louder footsteps echoed through the halls, along with a new strange noise. This time it sounded as if something was being dragged along the floor of the church.

"But it's also true that whatever effort he could try to put into killing me would go to waste. His light sword was fundamentally the same as the spears you Fallens use. As for the gun, well... _I'm well past the point where a bullet can harm me._ "

A white haired man emerged from the hallway, but not the one they were semi-familiar with. No priest garb, just simple casual clothes a normal human would wear. The battered body of Freed Sellzen was suddenly thrown in front of them. As they surveyed the damage he took it became evident that several of his bones were broken, especially those in his legs. He was barely breathing.

The one white-haired man that _was_ standing put his hand on one of the wooden benches.

"So..." they heard him speak once more "now that I've taken care of that annoying pest of a priest..."

A pair of red eyes was glaring at them from afar.

"...Who's next?"

They were paralyzed. The _thing_ in front of them had made short work of a fairly strong exorcist and was now going to engage them as well.

"No volunteers? ...Nobody? ...Very well." A sigh. "Guess I'll pick at random."

A moment later, Kalawarner saw one of the wooden benches flying towards her, mere centimeters away from her head before she was able to notice.

That was the last thing Mittelt could see before surrendering to the darkness encircling her, courtesy of an incredibly brutal kick in her temple as she was turning around to look at her partner.

"...Hm, I suppose both at the same time can also work."

As Kalawarner's own senses were waning, she was barely able to discern a humanoid form _literally lifting the altar and throwing it to the side,_ revealing the staircase that led to the catacombs, before passing out from the pain.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Alright, new stuff. Raynare's slightly different look is taken from an image I saw online and liked a lot. It was anime-ish, but it was not inspired by anything that already exists, so it's technically original. That's how it works, right? *sweats profusely* Anyway, the new look is meant to throw off potential hunters coming from the Grigori before she can plead for forgiveness to Azazel, and it's also meant to not make her look like a total bimbo like in the LN. That's not the role I want her in, hence the slight change.**

 **The challenge explains itself, really. Raynare wants to see Orochi's full capabilities, so she creates a scenario where he would be forced to stop holding back and actually fight efficiently: powerful enemies, someone to save, a short time-limit. Of course, she's still subconsciously underestimating his strength: surely, a human can't be _that_ powerful, right? That's what she's thinking, as someone who is supposed to be superior to humans no matter what. You'll see her thoughts about what just happened as soon as the next chapter starts.**

 **I will anticipate something about his ability, since I'll be writing about it soon, now that I've finished Chapter 8. In its current form, it's still kinda weak. Currently he's winning fights only thanks to his wit and his experience, and doesn't necessarily have the strength to compete with trained Devils yet. Hell, you can't even call them proper fights. But someone with experience equal or superior to his will prove incredibly difficult to deal with if they have the power to back it up. It will become evident once I reach the first original arc.**

 **Next time, more skullbashing, and the end of the first arc.**

 **I'll see you soon. Ciao!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **This chapter marks the end of the first arc, but timeline-wise the second arc will start immediately after. However, since I've gotten used to this site, as well as for other personal reasons, I can safely say that I'll have to prolong the wait between chapters. By how much, I don't know, but I can guarantee the wait won't last more than a week per chapter.**

 **Today, we have the final confrontation, Orochi vs Dohnaseek. How much of a margin in power will there be between a human with huge strength and a Fallen Angel capable of healing himself indefinitely? Read and find out! e.e**

 **We also take a look at what Orochi has left behind him in his little rampage, and how Raynare and the Devils react to what lays in front of them.**

 **I've thrown a reference in here, as usual I'll describe it at the bottom.**

 **I've also barely caught a stray review before publishing this chapter. Thank you for the support, Lazymanjones96, and trust me when I say we're just getting started.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Raynare couldn't believe her eyes.

She had challenged the 'human', Kamakura Orochi, daring him to enter the den of the Fallen invaders and defeat them without killing anyone. She requested a solid demonstration of his strength, and she knew he had plenty, but she didn't expect such a result.

Orochi's fight with Freed had started with the crazy priest rushing in with incredible speed and putting a bullet between his opponent's eyes. Even that human was not ready for such a speedy approach and she watched as he got literally shot in the face.

But the bullet couldn't even pierce his skin. Raynare had thought that she had been able to gauge that bastard's strength properly, and as such speculated that he would have a hard time in this situation. She couldn't be more wrong.

This _thing_ that had beaten down Freed until he stopped moving just didn't seem the same person from that night.

A similar show of overwhelming power was put on when he engaged her former allies. Hell, it could be barely called a fight: he just lifted a bench and threw it at Kalawarner's face, and delivered a mean kick to Mittelt's temple as she was turning around and trying to come to terms with what had just happened to her friend.

A brutal and merciless beating, coupled with two Fallens keeling over in a single blow each. It was on purpose, she could tell. The message was clear: Orochi had declared his ability to deal with whatever situation he was in in whatever way he wanted, exercising perfect control despite what it looked like from an outsider's view. Just by witnessing his actions, Raynare found herself admitting that he had already satisfied her curiosity. Of course, she would never tell him that.

Honestly, having him defeating Dohnaseek at this point seemed unnecessarily cruel even for her. But she guessed he wouldn't stop even if she asked him, since an innocent life was on the line. He was rushing, she noticed, which meant that the fights were not the only thing in his mind.

Suddenly Raynare sensed somewhat familiar signatures closing in on the church, and decided it was her turn to rush as well.

"Kamakura!" she shouted as he was about to descend into the catacombs. "The Devils will be here in a matter of minutes, so you better hurry up!"

"Got it, I'll make it quick!" he shouted back as he ran down the stairs.

It was fine. He would be fine. Raynare had seen enough of his ability that she knew he could handle himself. Hell, he would probably punch a wall and escape into the sewers or something, to make sure he would not be caught by the Devils. No reason to be concerned. None at all.

She decided to spare a thought for Orochi's next target instead. "Good luck, Dohnaseek." she said aloud. "I can't even begin to imagine what will happen to you if he actually finds the nun dead."

She looked around. Where Orochi had been, everything was thrown out of order, as if a tornado had just paid a visit to the interior of the church.

"...I should leave for the time being. I _will_ be back, to observe your ability, whatever it is, for a bit longer..."

With that, a magic circle appeared under her feet, and she vanished into the ether.

* * *

"!" Anya was about to enter the building along with Unryuu, but a peculiar feeling stopped her in her tracks.

"Anya-sama, what's wrong?"

"...It's the 'lone wolf'. She was in this building until a moment ago. It seems she has escaped the city again."

"..."

"No matter." Anya sighed. "I suppose we'll have to report her as a fugitive or something, for now let's just take care of the other Fallens."

"Right!"

* * *

He had finally done it. The ritual was complete, and Twilight Healing was in their hands. Dohnaseek was satisfied with the results of their work; sure, the nun died, but it was inevitable, he thought.

Those thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise. He turned around, towards the door. It was one of those big and heavy doors one would normally find in a sacred place.

 _The hinges had given out._

The noise was not dragged out nor repetitive. The door had received a single blow, and the hinges surrendered immediately. As the door fell on the ground with a loud stomping noise, a figure appeared behind it.

"...Are you the third Fallen?"

Dohnaseek narrowed his eyes at the figure, half-hidden behind the dust the falling door had lifted.

"Who is asking?"

"I'm Kamakura, nice to meet you."

"And, Kamakura, just _what_ are you, considering you've made it this far?"

"I'm a human."

Dohnaseek scowled at that. "...what business does a human have with me?" he inquired.

The figure, identified as Kamakura the human, stepped forward. As he came into view, Dohnaseek took in his appearance. His clothes were casual, his expression unreadable, his white hair were dirty with dust.

Dohnaseek didn't believe for a second that he was human. And yet, he didn't have the signature of a Devil. The Fallen clicked his tongue.

"I think I get it. You're an exorcist sent by the Church to apprehend us, right?"

"As if. An exorcist would probably just smite you on the spot." Kamakura retorted. "...I won't be as merciful."

* * *

The hall was in chaos.

There were several dents in the walls and the pillars, many broken benches, and traces of blood. Unryuu thought she saw even teeth among the mess and hoped it was her imagination. Her master was equally disgusted and surprised.

"...What the hell happened here?" Unryuu heard her mutter. She decided to give voice to her thoughts.

"Do you think the 'lone wolf' did this?"

"That could be the reason, but I still sense three Fallens. Whoever did this didn't kill their opponents and honestly I'm not sure I want to find out if it was indeed the 'lone wolf' or someone else."

She examined one of the dents in the wall. "...There aren't many cracks. Our culprit hasn't used any unnecessary power as they fought." she whispered, loud enough for her servant to hear. "Which means he or she was deliberately trying not to kill. As I imagined, I'd prefer if I didn't have to meet this person."

Unryuu had to agree to that. Nobody would ever want to make such a violent person angry.

She noticed a humanoid form laying on the ground a few meters away from herself. As she hurried over, she realized there were two more. "Anya-sama, over here!"

While her master hurried to where she stood, she took in the scene.

A man in a priest garb had been beaten black and blue by the culprit; she assumed the blood belonged to this man, because this part of the hall had almost no traces of red.

A blue-haired woman laid on the ground with a broken nose, a wooden bench broken in half near her unconscious form. No other bruise could be seen.

Finally, a small blonde girl with a Gothic dress had been slammed into the wall. Aside from the blood dripping from the side of her head that impacted into the concrete, she only had a single bruise on her left temple and was otherwise unharmed, suggesting that she, like her friend, was taken out in one blow.

Unsurprisingly, they couldn't help but gasp at the sight. Then, they looked ahead. The altar had been uprooted from its spot, and a small staircase had been revealed.

The _thing_ that caused this much pain to their targets had moved into the catacombs after dealing with whatever got in the way.

Suddenly a huge tremor made the church shake. It sounded like something had fallen over.

"...Let's hurry. I'm actually kind of afraid of who we might run into, but if this person has decided to solve the situation in our stead, we have a duty to see this through."

"Right. Let's go, Anya-sama!"

The Devil pair charged down the stairs, as the familiar noises of a battle started to ring throughout the walls.

* * *

"...You won't be merciful, you say?" Dohnaseek muttered in amusement, quietly laughing to himself. "You're funny, I'll give you that. And since you managed to arrive here in the first place you're also somewhat competent, I'll give you that as well. But all your efforts are for naught."

He lifted his head and stared at the 'human' before him. "Since you came here of all places and didn't run after a single confrontation, I assume you're aware of who we are and what our aim was. So, here's something that will make you lose all hope!" He showed his hands, which held a pair of silver rings with green gems that radiated with purity. He put the rings on his ring fingers. "This is the Sacred Gear **Twilight Healing**! No matter what you are, no matter how strong you are, I will be able to heal any damage you might inflict! You claim to be a 'human', which is impossible if you ask me, but I'll humor you: what can a human possibly accomplish in a fight against the wielder of such powerful magic?"

Orochi's gaze had been fixated on the Fallen the entire time. Only after the Fallen stopped talking he shifted his head to look at who he assumed was the former wielder of that Sacred Gear thing. It was a blonde haired girl with nun clothes, laying on the ground a few meters away from the two of them. Even in death, she had maintained a smile. He turned his eyes back to the Fallen.

"...You know, I was warned. I was told that there was a good chance I wouldn't be able to save this girl no matter how fast I got here. I entered this room expecting the worst, and the worst has happened. So I'm not surprised. But just so you know...

I don't think I'll be satisfied with what has transpired this evening until I break your spine."

Dohnaseek's body suddenly took a step back. The glare that was sent his way seemed that of a primal beast. Pure anger and hatred were emanated from the _thing_ in front of him. He couldn't help his now nervous laugh.

"H-Hahaha, don't tell me you got that angry for a complete stranger! You really are amusing, but it's high time I get rid of you!"

He charged at his opponent, a blue spear of light in his left hand, aimed at the heart.

The 'human' grabbed it before it could pierce him.

Dohnaseek however expected that much. From the moment he heard the gunshot to now, too little time had passed. This, this... _person,_ whatever he was, was strong enough to defeat his comrades quickly and arrive here without a scratch. Well, almost, considering that this person's forehead was reddened and had a dent oddly similar to that of a fired bullet. So he generated a second spear in his other hand, this time aiming for the throat.

This time, it was his arm's turn to be grabbed.

The human then twisted it _and kneed his elbow._

Dohnaseek's joint broke immediately and he threw himself to the ground, screaming in pain as Orochi simply stood there, waiting for him to stand up.

The Fallen was already breathing hard. He expected to take damage, but he didn't expect a broken joint so soon into the fight. To his relief, *Twilight Healing* started healing him, enveloping his body in green light, and he felt immediately better.

He slowly stood up, while Orochi decided it was a good time to address the issue he had with this battle.

"You know, when I came in here I expected this magical trinket to give you some cool abilities, or a significant power-up, anything of that nature. Then I find out all it does is heal the user and I assume anyone that comes into contact with it." His disappointment was evident in his tone. "In the end, your offense didn't get any stronger, and your defense didn't get any sturdier. You call that 'power'? Pathetic..."

After that statement, Dohnaseek immediately felt his patience run out. He roared and charged again. But Orochi had already stepped into his personal space. After redirecting the Fallen's arm away from his body, he grabbed his suit with his left hand, and put his right on his abdomen.

Dohnaseek's feet left the ground, but not because he decided to use his wings. "Brace yourself now!" shouted Orochi. "I've been told my throws pack a punch! This is true power!". He flipped Dohnaseek over his shoulder, and put all the strength he had into his hands as he slammed him flat on the cold floor, keeping them on him the whole time.

 _The entire floor shook from the impact._ The pain that the Fallen felt could not be described, as he almost thought his insides had been torn to shreds just by being thrown to the ground. In truth, nothing of that sort happened to his organs, at least not on that magnitude.

Orochi had yet to meet a person that didn't pass out after being thrown by him. Apparently his body favoured the efficient execution of some maneuvers over others, and it was a fact he never understood completely. Among those were knees and throws: they were illegal in normal full-contact kickboxing, but he had practiced them on his own against the many bullies and thugs he had opposed in middle school. (1) He learned how to do them because they were supposed to only take the opponent's breath away and end a fight in an instant.

For some reason, when _he_ executed the move, the pressure he generated was a lot heavier than normal, and was strong enough to even break bones at worst. Such had happened once during his official training, where on instinct he had performed a throw once even though he shouldn't have done so. It was something he was still ashamed of as he had asked the unfortunate victim of that time for forgiveness a thousand times over. It was his teacher back then that had speculated that his muscles were somehow able to coordinate with each other perfectly. The power was transferred without any loss of energy at all during movement, and was often impossible to bear for the average person, hence the breaking of bones. _It sounded awfully familiar in Orochi's mind._

That was exactly what had happened to Dohnaseek: some of his ribs had broken into tiny pieces, his spine was damaged, his diaphragm was compressed all of a sudden and some small fragments of bone had opened a hole in some of his organs.

The Fallen laid there face-up on the floor, unable to muster the strength to get up or even talk, his blood dripping from his lips, but still retaining consciousness somehow if his pained moans were anything to go by.

"...Oh, you're still awake. That's not good. If I leave you alone now you might attack me from behind once you've healed and hold me back more than necessary, and the Devils are coming so I can't spare anymore time..."

Orochi pondered what his next action should be, and quickly decided.

"I'll add one more for good measure before I leave."

He moved to Dohnaseek's left side, then grabbed his right shoulder and his right thigh. He lifted him up once more. This was his favourite throw: he had taken inspiration for it from a certain fight between androids. (2) And it was one of his strongest attacks.

"I did promise I'd break your spine after all!"

* * *

Another tremor. It was already the second time that Anya had to hold Unryuu's collar to prevent her from falling and hitting her head as they ran down to the catacombs.

"Gh! Really, again?!" Anya was, as one can imagine, understandably upset. And shaken up. "What the heck is that person doing? I'm really thinking that a simple slaughter would have been a lot easier to carry out at this point!"

She really did think that, but had decided to not finish off any of the injured people laying on the floor above her. Since they weren't a threat anymore, it would truly be murder had she done anything to them while they were in that sorry state. So she had used a spell to bind them with magical chains, and decided she was not to be the one to judge them.

"Uuuu... sorry, Anya-sama, I'm being a burden right now..." whined Unryuu.

"Don't mind it, it's nothing major. Rather, let's stay focused, we're almost there!"

They arrived at the catacombs shortly after. The door to the room in front of them was _not_ where it was supposed to be. There was complete silence.

As they stepped in they recognized two forms, both laid on the ground, one arguably more injured than the other.

One of them was Asia Argento, the nun who wielded the Sacred Gear **Twilight Healing**. The rings were on her fingers, a serene expression on her face. Anya touched her forehead: it was slightly cold, the poor girl had been dead for a little while already.

The other was the third Fallen, laying unconscious in a literal crater. Unryuu examined his body. Several ribs were broken, and he clearly suffered internal damage.

 _His spine was broken, and his ring fingers had been ripped off his hands._

Unryuu resisted the urge to vomit; she had always been kind of weak when it came to blood.

"How peculiar." She heard Anya walk over to her. "Our culprit has torn off this Fallen's fingers. They would do such a thing only if they thought it would break his hold over the Sacred Gear. But that person could have just killed him and it would have been enough."

Anya put a hand to her chin. "The person might have felt pity, but considering what we've seen tonight I highly doubt it. So the only possible option is that the culprit _didn't know that there was an easy way._ He or she must have doubted that killing the Fallen would break the bind and went for a safe approach..."

She broke out of her musings and looked around.

"...not here..."

"Huh?" Unryuu did not hear that right.

"OUR CULPRIT GOT AWAY! THE BASTARD BROKE THROUGH THE DAMN WALL, NO LESS!"

Sure enough, there was a hole big enough to fit a person in the wall. It looked like the culprit had escaped through the sewers, after deciding to leave the Devils behind to clean his mess for him. Anya ruffled her own hair in suppressed rage, but she took a deep breath and calmed down.

"...I can still do something about the nun at least. Unryuu, start cleaning up while I prepare the ritual."

"Right away."

* * *

(2 days later)

Everything had returned to normal. That night, Orochi had decided that it wasn't his job to clean up the chaotic mess he had caused in the building, and realized he couldn't leave the way he came since the Devils would definitely follow his path of destruction, and he didn't want to engage them without the information Raynare had promised him. So he had reached one of the walls and punched it in anger. He got careless, there was no escape!

And suddenly, there was.

He had opened a hole, a big one. Somehow. Now _this_ he was certain was not supposed to happen. He swore he would get to the bottom of this eventually, even if he had to use the Devils' knowledge to do it. Surely they would be able to tell him what the hell was wrong with his body. However, he still wanted to meet them in _his_ terms, so he ran into the darkness.

Eventually he re-emerged from a manhole with a foul smell on his person and headed home. He would not descend into the sewers ever again, he decided.

He headed to school like usual. He didn't feel like waiting for Unryuu so he kept walking as he reached the crossroad. As he sit down at his desk, his head started hurting again.

'Damn that crazy bastard of a priest, my body is _not_ used to bullets yet!' he thought angrily. The bruise had vanished, but the headache that came with it had other plans apparently. As a result, his mood was fouler than ever.

The bell rang, and his homeroom teacher walked in the room as his classmates ran back to their seats.

"Settle down everyone, I have important news." The man said in his monotone voice. "We're getting a new student today. Treat her well and behave yourself. You can come in and introduce yourself." He declared.

A familiar girl with black hair dyed green at the ends walked in the room.

"Hello everyone, I am Yuuma Amano, nice to meet you all! Let's get along, okay∼?"

As she choosed her seat, she was barely able to hear a whisper.

"...Shit, she wasn't kidding..."

She couldn't help smirking.

* * *

 **(1) This is accurate. They are in fact illegal in American kick-boxing, which is what Orochi was taught since it's the "cleanest version" so to speak. So the official style he's using is technically Muay Thai. He's just taking inspiration from a certain someone right now, and he will fight like this only when there's a need for him to get serious. I'll explain who that someone is towards the first half of the second arc.**

 **(2) This is a reference to the battle between Imperfect Cell and Android 16 in DBZ, where the latter grabs the former in a similar manner. He slams Cell to the ground before blasting the crater he creates.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **This is my favourite chapter yet. It portrays what Orochi really is at heart, even if he doesn't realize it: a monstrous being with messed up morals. He will intervene without fail every time he can make a difference, but his actions right now are absolutely inhumane and merciless. If he fights like he means it, his objective is to cause as much pain as possible, in order to force his opponent into complete submission. His body answers accordingly, allowing him to put more power into blows that are _meant_ to be painful. His only personal rule is this: "I will not kill." Everything else is otherwise allowed in his book, and this is reflected into his true fighting style, where almost nothing is forbidden. **

**Collateral damage is also perfectly acceptable. He made use of anything he could put his hands on, any object that could be thrown or wielded, any surface he could exploit. The battlefield is quite literally his playground: no wonder he became bored with the normality he had in his life, huh? Let me tell you, his childhood plays a big part in shaping him into the savage beast you've just witnessed. And I mean his childhood BEFORE the orphanage. AND, this is him while he doesn't realize that he has an ability.**

 **Raynare and the Devils' reaction is spot on. The most frightnening thing _(yet)_ about Orochi is the level of control he exerts ( _for now)_. No power is wasted, but it is used in satisfying quantities. However, that simply means he could have fought harder. He's still holding something back due to his personal rule, and it will be a while before he meets an opponent that forces him to use lethal blows. It will be a blast to write him when he truly loses control! u.u**

 **Again, this is the end of the first arc. The setup towards his battle against Riser (spoiler, I'm keeping him and Ravel) will be a bit long, but the second arc will only last 4 days overall timeline-wise, including the one that has just started. This doesn't mean it will be as long as this one, though: in fact this was 26 pages, and what I've written up to now for Arc 2 is 21! (Remember, I've said before that I'm halfway through the arc!) So yeah, my chapters are getting overall better, I think!**

 **Next time, a single truth is revealed.**

 **See you soon. Ciao!**


	6. Arc 2 Chapter 1

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been a week so here's the next chapter. Today Arc 2 starts and I'm kind of excited about it. That is, I would be if I wasn't completely out of steam.**

 **Not because I rushed the writing, or because I ran out of ideas, it's nothing like that. Thing is, I have to attend a basic formation course on computer technology, and it takes away all morning and most of the afternoon for five days a week. Since it's Friday I won't have classes in the weekend, which is why I went ahead and started publishing Arc 2 despite being tired. This course will last until next Friday (just two weeks in total, because again, it's basic), and after that I'll go spend Easter holidays with relatives which means no access to the PC. I'll try to keep the uploads somewhat steady, probably two more chapters before March 31st which is when I have to leave. The schedule should go back to normal when I come back.**

 **So, as I mentioned before, this arc will have several chapters of setup, some of which I'm not convinced about so I might need some time to adjust them properly if it comes down to it. However, I've got a few cool ideas to utilize and those are not gonna be changed under any circumstance.**

 **That said, this one chapter is short. Sorry about that. Not much happens in here, and because of this I feel obligated to load up the next one before Sunday evening. Look forward to that, it's worth it I promise.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 1 - The Fallen's Rise

Orochi Kamakura had already experienced a so-called "impossible situation". He had been left alone with the goal of defeating the previous partners of a certain Fallen Angel, and he managed to reach it fairly easily. He had yet to come to terms with the _hows_ of course, and that had been a prominent thought for the previous 2 days, but even that high priority task in his mind couldn't hold a candle to what was in front of him.

"Shit, she wasn't kidding..." This whisper escaped his lips as he tried to process the new "impossible situation". It was impossible, he had to reiterate in his mind, for her to be here. Was it? ...No, it really wasn't: she had claimed that she would settle down somewhere in the city in order to observe him, and in no way, shape or form did she outright tell him she wouldn't appear in his school. Her appearing once more before him made sense. Her appearing in his class was a scenario that could happen, he had to admit. But something wasn't right.

Was there a need for her to become one of his classmates? No, there wasn't. He already knew that a Fallen could easily disguise itself as a human, and he knew she could hide her presence with a spell of some sort, so her observation could be easily carried out from outside Kuoh. So why was she here? Orochi decided he would get answers out of her at lunch break.

Unbeknownst to him, Unryuu Nishijima was just as stunned.

She and her master Anya Adramelech had set out two nights before to engage the rogue Fallen Angels and prevent them from stealing Asia Argento's Sacred Gear **Twilight Healing.** They had reached their stronghold, an abandoned and desecrated church in the city, when suddenly one of the four signatures disappeared without a trace from the city. Back then, Anya had decided to just move on and deal with the three remaining enemies, before finding out that someone had already dealt with every hostile within the building. They had pondered what to do and came to an agreement: it wasn't up to them to judge their enemies' actions, not when they had already been punished, so they sealed their movements and handed them all to the Grigori, while the one Fallen that had escaped was declared MIA.

And now the Fallen had returned, and had blatantly showed her presence within the school to one of the Devils. Unryuu couldn't say for sure whether she was being incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Anya surely knew nothing of this, she would have been warned otherwise. Unryuu threw a glance at her friend as he was observing the newly arrived 'student'.

She saw a flash of recognition in his eyes, and he seemed surprised himself. But _not very much._ He had shown unrest for a mere few seconds before settling down, as if he was resigning himself. He knew something about what was happening, but she was wise enough to not consider asking him anything; he might have reacted badly to the fact that someone close to him (somewhat) was aware of stuff that shouldn't be known by average people. He was an idiot but he wasn't stupid: he would connect the dots, realize the purpose behind the pamphlet she gave him, and as a consequence he'd get _very angry._

So she would first grab Anya from her class at lunch break and report her findings. Sure, she had probably already sensed the Fallen girl's presence, but Unryuu figured that Orochi's reactions were important enough to be of interest to her master.

The morning classes went very smoothly that day.

* * *

At last the bell that signalled lunch break rang throughout the academy. Unryuu bolted out of the classroom immediately, while Orochi, too distracted to realize, was pondering how to approach **Yuuma Amano,** or rather Raynare, in the most natural way possible.

That obstacle was immediately toppled by Raynare herself.

"Hey, Kamakura-kun! Um, I got the name right, yes?"

She had come to him immediately, ignoring her new classmates' questions. 'Bold as ever...' Orochi thought, despite her clearly forced shyness.

"...Hello. Amano-san, right? Can I help you?" He had to keep a straight face as he called her with that name.

"Ah, yes, I actually need a favor, do you mind?" He wasn't sure if she was mocking him or not with how she had asked that question. It resembled their first encounter.

"No, not at all. What do you need?"

"Well, I have yet to memorize the school's layout, and it looks like I'll have a hard time on my own since there are two buildings apparently. Would you be so kind as to accompany me throughout the academy if you have time right now?"

"...Sure, but let's hurry, lunch break won't last forever."

"Fair enough, let's go then!" She started to walk out the room, Orochi following shortly after.

'...lucky bastard...' was the kindest comment he had overheard from the male component of his class. If only they knew, he thought.

As they walked around the corridors of the new building, where all normal lessons were conducted, Orochi took the initiative.

"You know, I still don't understand you completely."

"Why would you be able to do so in the first place? The two of us only met a few times." was the immediate response. She had a point, he supposed.

"...Fine, you're right, but I still have to ask why exactly you have to follow me around." A valid reason, it was the only thing he needed to actually be able to bear constantly having a pair of eyes on him.

"Aside from the fact that I already told you I'm interested in your power... if you must ask, the Governor has ordered me to keep an eye on you, so I wouldn't be able to object even if I wanted to, which I don't."

"What about your former comrades? And yourself, for that matter?"

"You left them alive, and the Devils decided to do the same. They've been sent back to the Grigori, Freed included, but I don't know what happened to them. As for me, well... I was part of that group at one point so even if I decided to pull out, it was impossible for Governor Azazel to not punish me as well. I've been expelled from the Grigori, officially speaking, so I'm technically a rogue, but I still follow my leader's orders as a spy of sorts. There's also the fact that the Devils have yet to be warned about my presence so I think it will be even more beneficial if I were to stick around you for a little while."

Orochi understood Raynare's position a bit better now: this Azazel guy had mercy since she didn't execute her group's original plan herself, but clearly appearances had to be maintained so he had banished her from the main group, only to secretly allow her to hide in Kuoh, presumably at her request, and have her follow direct orders from him in exchange. But something still irked him.

"...Are you just assuming that I know what this Grigori is? And the fact that I'm being used as a shield pisses me off."

"Oh, my bad." She didn't sound apologetic at all. "It's the common term used for the congregation of Fallen Angels created by Governor Azazel. They answer to him and several other high-level Fallens, and their role in the supernatural world is to watch over the children of God and the blessings some of them have received. Twilight Healing is an example of this."

Twilight Healing, and the nun who possessed it. That was another point Orochi thought they had to discuss. "What happened to that girl? Do you know?"

"Yeah." Raynare confirmed. "According to the signatures I sense, she got back her Sacred Gear, and she's been reincarnated as a Devil. Ironic, isn't it?"

"It's actually kind of a harsh treatment in my opinion." He was being completely honest: he was glad that the girl could be saved after all, but he imagined that a life of devotion towards God did not mesh well with a Devil's body and mind. "She can't pray anymore, can she?" he guessed.

"Not my problem. I've washed my hands of this mess." was Raynare's half-confirmation. "Of course you'd say that..." Orochi muttered.

They walked outside, towards the old building.

"Speaking of which, there's something I want to ask you." Raynare declared. She turned around to face him as they stood in front of each other in the plaza in front of the old building.

"Before I give you the info I've promised to you... Why did you ask me about what I knew about the Devils here in Kuoh? You can't be that ignorant about it."

She seemed to think that Orochi should have been aware of certain facts for some reason, but he couldn't fathom why.

"What kind of question is that? Obviously it's because I know nothing about them. And besides, I want to meet them. I have to understand once and for all just what kind of power my body contains, and I won't find my answer in a library or online, will I?"

Raynare scowled. "That's not possible. When I broke into your house, I saw one of those stupid pamphlets with the pentagram on the paper, abandoned on your washing machine. They use it to establish their contracts, it's actually a pretty big factor in their economy I hear." She said matter-of-factly.

"So you did break in! I'll definitely get you back for that! And you have it wrong, at any rate. That thing is surely just a scam, it was given to me by a... b-by a..."

He went pale. A look of realization appeared on his face.

Everything fell into place.

The pamphlet was meant to give help to a person in need in case he or she ever needed to ask for it, Unryuu said that when she gave it to him. That same night, he was attacked, but he didn't have much trouble so it wouldn't have mattered even if he brought it along. The day after, however, Unryuu had shown obvious concern for him. _As if she thought he was hurt somewhere. But why would she have such worries, if she didn't know about his encounter? No, she had to know. Which meant that the pamphlet was meant to be a safety measure in case he was mortally wounded. But since that paper was meant to be a Devil's instrument, it probably would have called a Devil over to the park in order to save him, had he used it._ **Why would she not keep the paper for herself? She had to know that a Devil would appear from it, surely. This meant that she was possibly a client for Devil contracts. But why would she give it to him then, just before the night he was attacked, even when she knew he didn't believe in superstitions?**

 **'Nishijima is a Devil.'**

 ***ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN***

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Not much to say here, but I'll try to comment whatever I can.**

 **Raynare enrolling to Kuoh has pretty much already been explained by the story. Azazel's intentions are also fairly obvious I think. He has definitely received a proper report on the incident, probably by Raynare herself, and acted accordingly, both to protect her and research the human who won against Fallens.**

 **The writing that gradually changed seemed like a good way to show Orochi's train of thought as it reached an unwanted destination. Might employ it again in the future, but that depends on your reviews e.e**

 **...This is all I got. Thinking hurts right now, ow. If you happen to have questions, I'll answer them though.**

 **Next time, chaos.**

 **See you soon. Ciao!**


	7. Arc 2 Chapter 2

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **As promised, here's another chapter on a lovely Sunday evening, one of those evenings where my router does NOT want to cooperate and I get angry. Luckily it's not that bad when it comes to this site, and this last statement might bite me in the butt one day.**

 **Anyway. Today, we look properly at Orochi's worst side. ...well, "properly" is not the right term, but I won't say anything else about that for now. After that, the meeting between Orochi and the Devils is finally set up, so look forward to that. I have a twist coming for the next few chapters, something that nobody will expect I'm sure.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom then. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 2 - Blood Red Anger

The supernatural world had always been unable to sustain itself by normal means. The power these creatures were born with was not meant to be taken for granted. The reason for this was that unlike humans, the very existence of supernatural creatures was completely dependant on the magic particles within their bodies. Humans were occasionally able to generate a small quantity of those particles on their own, and use them for their own purposes, and those humans were called **magicians.** Of course, magicians had different levels of experience and knowledge, and the quantity of magic generated varied according to those factors. However, the supernatural came into the world already possessing those particles in large quantities, and their very being inevitably became reliant on them.

If the magic core of a Devil, for example, suddenly experienced a heavy modification of some sort, the particles within them would quite literally go crazy, and the body of the Devil would immediately mutate into something monstrous. That reaction was unique to reincarnated Devils, due to the impurity of the particles themselves and also due to the **Evil Piece** within them, which was the trigger for the transformation itself. The moment it acknowledged that the contract of servitude had been broken, the moment the Devil decided to go rogue, it was the Piece itself that destabilized the magic core of the disobeying Devil.

Unryuu Nishijima did not satisfy one of those two conditions, because her loyalty towards her master had always been unwavering. And for that reason, she only experienced a headache and a bit of nausea as she sensed the _enormous pressure_ released near the old building of Kuoh. As such, she was able to sense what was happening to some extent, despite the pain.

 _The magic particles within her were leaving her body, and heading towards the source of that pressure._

Fortunately the absorption was not that intense. Her core was able to keep up in restoring the lost particles, so she was not in any danger. The Evil Piece within her, among other things, was supposed to keep the core stabilized no matter what (as long as the contract wasn't broken of course), since changing a creature's intrinsic nature, during a reincarnation ritual for example, could cause immense damage to the body otherwise. So, losing some magic would simply lead to these kind of symptoms resembling a light illness when the target of an attack such as this was a supernatural creature.

As she realized that her master would be hit by this pressure as well, and _she would feel it a lot more,_ being a pure-blooded Devil _,_ she pushed herself forward despite her headache, and power-walked towards Anya's classroom in concern. Trying to stop the perpetrator was not a good idea: in this state where a creature's magic core was busy trying to counter the particle drain, casting magic of any sort would have ...consequences.

Anya had already keeled over by the time Unryuu reached her master's classroom. She was unconscious on the ground, her chair fallen as well, and she had become pale as a ghost as her body trembled like the ground during a tremor.

"!" Unryuu took a sharp breath at the sight. "I-I'll carry her to the infirmary right away!" she shouted to her master's classmates, who were simply too stunned by Anya's sudden collapse to react in any way before her friend arrived. She picked Anya up and ran out, ignoring her own tribulations.

It ended as suddenly as it had started. The pressure was gone, and her sickness along with it. Even Anya was regaining color on her face. She considered dropping her off to the infirmary and go investigate, but decided against it. She needed to stay at her master's side for the time being, and whatever had just happened, that Fallen girl was definitely at fault for it to some extent, and they would simply have to catch and interrogate her at a different time since she apparently didn't plan on leaving the city permanently.

Ironically, she had no idea that part of the fault lied in her as well.

* * *

Raynare almost collapsed as well when it happened.

All of a sudden while they were talking, Orochi seemed to have come to a realization of some sort. She didn't know what it was, but Orochi became incredibly angry because of it, and _lost control._ She felt as if she was standing right next to a black hole, threatening to rob her of her magic and consequently her life.

She rose up from her kneeling position, but she was having a hard time even standing. Her stomach was twisting around in her belly as she looked at the 'human'.

His hands were curled in a fist so tightly that his nails were cutting into his palms, and his teeth were grinding against each other as his whole body trembled.

 _A blood-red aura was surrounding him_.

"KkkgGhkKghKGHKGhhkhgkHGKh..." His grunts of barely suppressed rage were still reaching her ears. She acted as fast as the immense pressure allowed her, and created a light spear.

 _As expected, it looked incredibly unstable._

It was pretty much the same as pulling the pin of a grenade and then decide to not throw it. The element of light was quite difficult to control for any magician that chose it as the focus for their spells. Obviously, it was pretty much natural for Angels to know how to use it properly, but gaining complete control over a light spear was actually a fairly hard task, and not many were able to pull it off. Raynare was of course still unable to do so, so she had to strike, _fast,_ or her own spear would be the death of her.

"CUT IT OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTT!". The spear connected with the side of the boy's head. It didn't seem to do anything to his temple's skin, in fact it immediately collapsed as it touched Orochi. And yet...

* **CLICK** *

It worked somehow. Both the pressure and the aura disappeared, leaving Orochi almost breathless and kneeled on the ground, a hand to his face as if he was struggling with himself.

'Fuck, look at what he just did. He definitely alerted the Devils with that. ...It'd be a nice change of pace for him to find someone at his level...' Raynare pondered, half-amused and half-angry at what had just occurred. 'Speaking of which...'

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!"

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO RELEASED IT, YOU IDIOTIC HUMAN!"

"DOESN'T MAKE MY KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPERNATURAL ANY BETTER THAN YOURS, YOU IGNORANT CROW!"

Suddenly they were standing in front of each other, and had turned the entire situation into a shouting contest as they butted heads, glared fiercely and called each other names.

Luckily no one was around, since it was lunch break and pretty much all of the students were still in the old building, and a normal human with no magic in his or her body would have never noticed the pressure increase.

Orochi was the first to interrupt the silly competition: he stood up straight, and looked to the side. "...I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"...Clearly we _really_ need this information. Both of us. I have to report... whatever that was, to Azazel-sama as soon as he establishes contact." Raynare would have told the Governor right away if she could, but a rogue Fallen really wasn't supposed to be able to contact Azazel without giving away her location to the wrong people. She had to wait for him to call her before she could relay the informations he wanted.

"What did I do, Raynare?" Orochi was looking at her again, a pleading look in his eyes. He knew that there was no way that the Fallen girl hadn't noticed a significant change when he lost his cool.

Raynare scowled and looked away. She felt mildly sick, having lost a lot of energy in mere seconds, especially since her proximity to him had enhanced the drainage. She clicked her tongue. "You were pretty much stealing and destroying the magic particles in my body. ...However, it doesn't fit with what I've seen you do these past days, so _that_ definitely wasn't the main purpose of your ability, whatever it is."

She threw a glance at him. "Why did you react like that anyway?"

"...Let's just say I was unable to come to terms with a certain fact. But I'm fine now." He bowed in a flash. "I'm really sorry! I lashed out in anger for personal reasons, I was definitely in the wrong! Please forgive me!"

Raynare was baffled at this show of humility. Orochi Kamakura of all people was apologizing! If someone told her such a thing had happened before today, she would have heartily laughed in the face of whoever released such garbage from their mouths, and then proceed to cut off their tongue. And yet it was happening.

"P-Please stop that, that kind of b-behaviour coming from you seriously creeps me out!" Raynare pointed at him in a panic. "I'll forgive you but stop!"

Orochi laughed lightly at that. "Haha, my bad my bad. Well, this is enough drama for one morning I think." He really seemed to have cheered up after seeing her reaction. Having that thought, Raynare's eyebrow twitched in irritation once more, but decided to keep quiet. She supposed that he needed to cope with the whole... black hole thing that had just happened. _That_ was surely something that a simple human couldn't come up with on the fly, so she guessed that he was pretty rattled himself.

"But I agree with you on one point." He continued. "This can't go on. We will go and meet the Devils today! ...When we're done with afternoon classes." he added sheepishly at the end.

"...When we're done with afternoon classes." Raynare repeated. "Fine, I'll guide you towards them later, since you can't sense their presence. But I thought you'd want to get to the bottom of this situation right away."

"Trust me, I want to, but I don't feel ready yet." Orochi admitted. "I have to sort out something in my mind first, and also decide the correct approach for this meeting."

"Right. Well, I guess we're done here so I'm gonna go lay down for a bit."

"Huh?"

"You drained me out, _literally._ I feel like crap as a result, so I'll go to the infirmary. Tell that dead-eyed teacher of ours I felt sick. I'll come fetch you when classes are over."

"...I see. I'm sorry."

"STOP APOLOGIZING OR THE NEXT SPEAR WILL GO INTO ONE OF YOUR EYES!"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

* * *

After chasing Orochi away, Raynare walked back towards the infirmary in the old building of Kuoh. She had just told a half-lie to the human: she did feel sick, and did lose some of her magic reserves so she did need rest, but she intended to do something else first. She sensed the presence of two Devils where the infirmary should be, and decided it was a good idea to confront them herself first. It definitely was no coincidence that a Devil would need to lay down at the same time she needed to after all.

Also, she wouldn't be able to carry out her orders as long as the Devils weren't sure of her intentions, and since she was admitted to Kuoh just today, she was unable to meet them during classes for obvious reasons. So, she was going to take this chance and kill two birds with one stone. Not literally, of course: she meant "resting" and "talking to the Devils", really! ...She realized that figure of speech was kind of misleading in that particular case.

Raynare eventually reached the infirmary, and knocked at the door. She heard one of the Devils standing from her seat. "Who is it?" she heard from inside.

"Depends." Raynare chose a vague answer in order to force the Devil to open the door. As expected, the reaction of said Devil when she saw who was behind it was incredibly obvious. Panic.

"You-"

"Shut up. I'm not here to harm you. I'm just _another victim._ "

A look of understanding appeared on the white-haired Devil's face, quickly replaced by confusion.

"But-" "I told you to shut up. I'll explain, so calm down."

A glare was thrown Raynare's way. She wasn't bothered at all. Finally the Devil girl relented and let her in.

Raynare took in the sight within the room. As expected, the stronger Devil of the two, who she guessed was the master, was laying on one of two beds. A chair on the side of that bed indicated that the servant was faithfully keeping company to her.

Anya had regained consciousness a few minutes before, and was trying to convince Unryuu that she was going to be fine, when the Fallen knocked at the door. Now, she was also glaring harshly at her.

"No point in looking at me like that. I also feel like shit right now." As Raynare said that, she threw herself on the unoccupied bed. "In fact, I was in front of the new building when it happened." She claimed with her eyes closed.

"...Then can you explain just _what_ has happened?" inquired Anya.

"I can, but it's not my place to do so. I intend to bring the person responsible to you, once classes are over. You just need to tell me where you'll be when the school day ends, so that I don't have to waste effort in sensing your presences."

"Why should we tell you something like that?" asked Unryuu, hostility clear in her voice.

"Because I have no idea of how that person will behave if I just tell them where you guys are and leave them alone afterwards. Besides, that person also has some questions to ask you, and the answers to those questions are something I'm after myself. ...But all that stuff can wait for a few hours. For the time being, I shall explain why I'm back here in the city, since you probably want to know that as well."

She turned around in the bed to face the two Devils. "First of all, understand that I was part of that group of rogues you intended to engage a few nights ago and I've already been punished for that. I'm an _actual_ rogue now-"

"I sense a 'but'." Anya interrupted

"...but I might change my mind and kill you both if you interrupt me again." That shut them up good: they were in no condition to defend themselves properly after all, and unlike her, they didn't walk around much. A magic circuit worked much like a human's circulatory system, and moving about was ideal when the blood in a body was not circulating properly; in the same fashion, simple movement was enough to snap a creature's magic circuit out of an inhibition.

Raynare realized that anger wouldn't get her anywhere so she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "As I was saying, I've been officially thrown out of Grigori, but Azazel-sama was merciful and granted me the chance to take the role of a spy and watch over... certain targets of interest in the city."

Unryuu became alarmed at that statement. If the Fallen's claims were true, Orochi was still going to be observed at all times, be it by herself or by the girl in front of them. But judging by her friend's reaction earlier that morning, he seemed to be aware of the Fallen's intentions. Could it be that Orochi had somehow decided to ally himself with the Grigori? Perhaps to find out what kind of power he possessed? Azazel was known to be an avid collector and researcher of Sacred Gears after all.

"I'm telling you this to make sure you won't try and disrupt my work." Raynare continued. "Azazel-sama has been very clear about it: I cannot lay a finger on the targets. Not that I would be able to even if I wanted..." she muttered that part in a very low voice. "Anyway, you can confirm this with him at any point, he's willing to leave a channel open for communications between you and himself until all doubts are cleared."

"Very well, I suppose I'll have to do just that when I get the chance..." Anya sighed in resignation.

At that point, the door bursted open, and a blonde haired girl entered the infirmary in a rush.

"Buchou-san, are you okay? I heard some students were feeling sick and that you were one of..."

She trailed off. She had noticed Raynare's presence in the room and recognized her immediately.

"A-Ah... Raynare... -san?"

"Uuuuuugh, don't bother me, I don't feel like dealing with this right now. Wake me up and you're dead." Raynare, having said what she had to say, and having forgot she had asked for a place where she and Orochi could meet the Devils, turned around facing the wall, ignoring the presence of her former target Asia Argento, and immediately fell asleep.

"Don't worry Asia." said Anya. "It doesn't look like she's interested in you anymore so you can relax, I think."

Asia released the breath she was holding and calmed down. "T-Thank goodness..."

"Unryuu, we can leave. I'm okay now." Anya added. "You too, Asia. Despite what the Fallen, this Raynare-san, has said, we should be fine as long as we don't trigger unnecessary conflicts."

"Y-Yes!" "Right." The three Devils made for the exit, Asia rushing out for obvious reasons, but Anya stopped right at the doorstep. "I'll see you and your 'partner' at the Occult Research Club..." She said, as she left the room with a sleeping-but-not-quite Fallen behind.

They returned to their classrooms just in time for their afternoon classes. Unryuu looked over at Orochi as she sat down.

If he did notice her arrival, he had ignored her completely for some reason.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **I enjoyed writing this one. Orochi's loss of control didn't last long, but it was still intense and meaningful. Once again you readers were able to see how inciting an emotion within someone who has strong feelings will always have consequences. This time, it was pure anger that was released; but next time, who knows? Even I don't have a clue.**

 **The "black hole" that absorbs magic is only one side of the medal when it comes to Orochi's ability, as was said in the chapter. We're getting closer and closer to the moment where most of its traits will be explained, but sadly it won't happen for a little while. Keep your cool and stay patient, don't explode like Orochi did, yeah?**

 **The meeting between Raynare and the Devils was actually not written right away. What I mean by that is, I didn't plan for it to happen at first, but I'm glad I decided to add it in. It's the right amount of setup, and it fills several blank spots in the story I feel. If I missed anything, which could very well be the case, do notify me and I'll try to address it.**

 **The Raynare/Asia relationship is something that admittedly I have yet to decide. To be fair, the same goes for Orochi/Asia, but you'll be able to see a little bit of that in the next chapter. And the term "relationship" is meant in a very generic way, so don't get any ideas. Yet.**

 **That's all I've got for today. Next time, the meeting.**

 **See you soon. Ciao!**


	8. Arc 2 Chapter 3

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **Today I give you the entirety of the meeting Orochi+Raynare/Devils! It's... kind of a big chapter wordcount-wise. That's because this is pretty much the union between two consecutive chapters. I made this executive decision at the last minute for two reasons:**

 **1) Since I'll be gone for a few days, I won't be able to upload for a week for so, and for that reason I thought it would be better if I published a big one tonight.**

 **2) The "second chapter" of the two was kind of short, so I thought that I might as well put them together! e.e**

 **There's some good stuff in here, and the next few chapters will be just as good so your patience will be rewarded, I promise.**

 **For now I've run out of things to say so...**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 3 - The Meeting

At the end of the afternoon classes, Unryuu gathered her things and made for the exit once again. Only at that moment did Orochi consider the option of looking at her not-human friend. 'She's going to her club, no doubt...' he thought. Or at least that was what he wanted to think.

He now knew that Unryuu Nishijima was a Devil. He knew that she had been part of that club since shortly after they arrived in Kuoh, but he never bothered to check it, or any other club for that matter, out. Her going to a club, was it a lie? Not necessarily: he had come to that conclusion as he pondered what to do during the afternoon classes. Maybe the lie was the club itself, or its purpose at the very least. It was plausible: clubs were not exactly well-supervised, and he figured that Devils, and supernatural creatures in general, were able to get away with whatever they did anyway, if their existence had not been discovered up to that moment.

Had she always been a Devil? He was even wondering if the name she gave him was the real one. That question and many others assaulted his mind all at once a few hours earlier and, for a few seconds, _his mind became a blank._ During that time, his unknown ability showed a new side, according to Raynare: a side that seemed tailor-made to destroy magic entirely. As she rightly stated, it didn't match with what he had been able to do until that point, and the event left him with even more question marks in his head. He was finally fed up with it all to the point where not getting answers now would leave him angry for a long damn time.

The face he wanted to see finally appeared in front of the door to the classroom. Raynare had arrived, sporting an incredibly serious look on her face.

"Time to go." "...Right."

He picked up his bag and left with the Fallen.

"...Where are we going then?"

"The Occult Research Club."

He was somewhat right then. Clearly the ORC was simply a cover for those Devils' activities. And somehow they were able to hide this long in his school. But not much longer.

He knew it. He hated the thought but he knew: if he didn't get what he wanted this one time, he would definitely throw a tantrum. One that he knew he was actually going to control somewhat, which was arguably more terrifying for whoever the victim would be.

* * *

The Occult Research Club was already occupied by three people.

"I'm not gonna lie to you girls..." declared Anya, "I'm kind of excited to meet this person. And for reference, Asia, it takes a lot of effort to make my hands tremble like this.". She added that last part for Asia, who didn't know any better since she had been part of Anya's peerage for a very short time still. And sure enough, Anya's entire body was truly shaking in expectation.

Since her now-fellow-servant had been brought up, Unryuu decided to address an issue she had been thinking about. "Asia-chan, weren't you sick as well from what happened earlier?"

"A-Ah, yes, a little. But I was more concerned with Buchou-san's well-being, so I r-rushed over to the infirmary once I was told she had been carried there."

Unryuu sweatdropped. "...What am I, an afterthought?"

"! E-Erm, w-w-well, t-t-that's not what I..."

"Hehe, don't worry Asia, I'm just giving you a hard time. You had your priorities straight and I can't fault you for that." Unryuu smiled at her. She really needed a distraction so she had tried to incite a rise in her new friend. Orochi had not regarded her all day; whether it was on purpose or because he was pensive again, she didn't know. It could have been both with him, really, but she couldn't begin to imagine what she did to upset him, and if she did go too far with teasings he would have definitely gotten revenge by now. She still remembered the huge bump on her head caused by Orochi's fist last time she tried to pull that shit. _And harming her was hard to say the least._

Finally, a knock was heard from the door to the club. "Who is it?" asked loudly Anya.

Raynare's head poked out of the doorframe. "We're here."

"Finally, we've been waiting for you. Come in."

Raynare stepped into the room, _accompanied by Orochi._

Both Anya and Unryuu froze, while Asia stood there, slightly confused at her master and fellow servant's behaviour.

Unryuu's mind became blank. 'Why is he here. Why is he here. _Why is he here?_ ' was the thought that kept emerging in her brain.

Raynare however did expect such a reaction from them. She did her research shortly after meeting Kamakura, and sure enough, the Devils had him already under surveillance; not that he needed it, she thought in amusement. 'How long will this whole situation hold out before a fight starts though? I wouldn't trust Orochi with a newborn puppy, much less two trigger-happy Devils.'

As usual, it was Orochi who broke the silence. People being stunned at his presence or strength was becoming a trend, it seemed. So he broke it the only way he knew how.

"Hmph, didn't think I would ever step foot in this club but here we are. Not even too many people in this place. Now I just _know_ that you guys are brainwashing teachers or something."

With a metaphorical sledgehammer.

He looked at Unryuu.

"Unsurprisingly you're here, Nishijima. I managed to figure out that you're a Devil but seeing you here is still pissing me off."

"W-Wait, what are you talking abou-"

Unryuu barely managed to compose herself enough to ask something, but she was immediately interrupted.

"Not important _._ I'll deal with your bullshit another time. Let's get to business...

... _Who's in charge here?_ "

His menacing tone immediately put them out of their stupor. He had gotten out of an assassination attempt completely unscathed. He had great strength, enough to compete evenly with the supernatural. He knew they were Devils. He was the cause of the immense pressure that weakened all three of them for a short while. He entered the club room with the Fallen that had defected. He was definitely told all that he needed to know. He could only react to the news in a single way, from what Unryuu had told her about his usual behaviour.

 _'I'm next.'_

Anya immediately created two blood-red magic circles, one per hand, and generated out of nowhere two deep crimson lances. She gripped them both and launched herself from the seat behind her desk towards Orochi. She would not give him the chance to lay his hands on her; she had already seen the effects of his strength on both environment and people. Her sudden movements left both Unryuu and Asia completed stunned and silent.

The twin lances were Anya's pride: their blades were incredibly sharp, so she was confident that not even Orochi Kamakura would be able to just grab them and stop her attack, especially if he didn't expect it like in this case. She had caught him off guard, and his instinct would tell him to dodge at the very least, but she knew that much. So, for extra insurance, she activated her clan ability, **Wisdom of the Haunted Ground**. This ability allowed her to see into the future, albeit for a very short time. It was only one second ahead, and could only be used every ten seconds, but it was usually enough to determine where her opponent would dodge, and adjust her strikes accordingly to deliver a killing blow. (1)

No other attack would be enough. If Kamakura decided to become aggressive, it would be incredibly difficult to stop him. And besides, what was supposed to be a killing blow would definitely lose enough edge against him to easily leave him alive.

 _She foresaw Orochi sidestepping to his right._

As expected. He would be able to react in time, that monster of a human. But it would be meaningless: she simply had to adjust.

She was thrusting the lance on her right hand towards his abdomen, and he simply sidestepped to the right, confidence still etched on his face despite the surprise assault.

The spear suddenly curved towards him.

'How will you handle this?' Anya thought, her own confidence sprouting from her being.

 _A right foot placed itself on the base of the weapon._

It seemed Orochi was still capable of reacting. He had put his right foot on the side of the spear in order to drive it away from his body and pierce the floor instead. However, his back was now open.

'It's over!' Anya prepared her other lance, and made a second thrust towards him.

But it wasn't meant to be: Orochi had already found something to exploit. The Devil girl's twin lances had two side blades each, presumably meant to keep them usable if the main blade broke. 'A good design choice, but it will cost you this battle!' he thought.

He knew his maneuver would leave his back exposed, so after deviating the first spear with his right foot, he had put that same foot on one of the side blades and used it as a pivot to do a half spin with his body, bend his other leg, and send a straight kick towards the Devil's face.

'He's faster, I won't hit him in time!' Anya spun her second lance at the last moment, and used its base to defend against the kick. They had entered a lockdown and she was at a disadvantage: her legs were busy trying to withstand Orochi's strength, and she couldn't move her weapons at all.

"Too jumpy, Devil. I didn't even say I wanted to pick a fight, and you just charged in like a raging bull."

He raised his strength and pushed her away, forcing her to leave behind the spear that was stuck in the ground. He then jumped lightly off of it.

"I'm not interested in you in that fashion, even if you're kinda good. I'm here because you have information that I want." He pointed at her. "Judging by where you jumped from, I take it that you're the one calling the shots. Am I wrong?"

After being attacked, he didn't do much to retaliate. That meant, in Anya's eyes, that he truly did not intend to fight. She didn't think that the building would survive if they actually started fighting seriously, so she decided to settle down, but still keep her guard up.

"...No, you're not." Anya answered carefully. "I lead the Devils that are part of the ORC."

"Your name?"

"Anya Adachi."

 _"We're too far into the game for you to use a Japanese surname in front of me."_ Orochi's tone became menacing again. _"I may be an idiot, but I'm not stupid enough to actually believe what you just said."_ He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Try again."

"...Anya Adramelech, a Pillar Devil."

"That's better, although I don't know what's the deal with that 'Pillar' you added."

"...What do you want then, if you're not here to fight?"

"As I said, I want whatever information you can give me. About my powers, that is."

Anya narrowed her eyebrows, but Orochi didn't take notice of it. "You sent Nishijima to look after me for a reason, didn't you? At the very least, you're aware of my... capabilities."

She was, or at least she knew he wasn't normal. However...

"I saw enough at the abandoned church to be able to tell what goes through your head while you fight." answered Anya. "But that's all we know about you, since we can't figure out your ability."

"...What." Orochi was not amused by that answer, and for good reason. How could they know nothing? "You better have a good reason."

"I have it. Are you familiar with Sacred Gears?"

He looked at a very alive Asia for the first time, who was still scared after what had just transpired, and then looked at Raynare, who was completely unimpressed by his display as if she expected it. He turned back to Anya. "...Somewhat. I was told they exist within some humans, but I don't know much."

"Good enough. You need to know this: Sacred Gears are detectable within a human even if they don't manifest, which is usually the case until the human is reincarnated into a Devil." Orochi memorized that latter bit for later use: he still had to deal with Unryuu after all. "A supernatural creature will sense _something solid_ in them. They can't tell if it's a Sacred Gear or simply an artificial magic core created by a magician, but whatever it is, it will always have a physical form, or a _shape_ in which that power can be imagined. Your ability has no such thing however. It's just _there_ in your body, and doesn't seem to have a shape of its own. In simpler words, if someone were to extract that ability from your body, it wouldn't be able to materialize, or perhaps it would, but it'd be impossible to describe. It would be nothingness, or infinity. And it is pretty much impossible to gather an acceptable amount of knowledge about such a thing, hence our lack of information, and our inability to define the ability itself. Is that sufficient?"

Orochi pondered his answer for a few seconds. What Anya said to him was so farfetched that he thought it was impossible for it to be a lie. It was clear that he wouldn't be able to get answers from her. "...From you, yes. I accept the fact that you can't tell me anything. If that's the case, answer me this... Is there someone that knows more than you do?"

Anya closed her eyes and sighed. She went back to her desk and sat down.

"Yes, there is. One of our supreme leaders, to be precise. He happens to be a scientist, an inventor, a scholar of sorts whose passion is the unknown itself. Someone you definitely can't defeat, and the only person that might have an idea of what your ability is...

 **The Satan, Ajuka Beelzebub.** "

Orochi had narrowed his eyebrows after hearing Anya's last statement. He wasn't so vain as to think he was invincible, but people telling him he couldn't ever defeat someone no matter how hard he tried had irked him more than he expected. And there were more than one of these Satans, more than one of these Devils that were presumably out of his reach. But that logic was flawed, he thought.

"You're probably right in saying that I can't defeat a Satan. After all, if the two of us are currently somewhat equal in power, a person that stands above you relevance-wise will definitely be stronger than me. However, I have to ask this: on what basis do you claim that I can't beat someone of that level?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"It's not that hard to understand, really. You went and compared my power, something that according to you is hard to define, to that of someone who has earned the title of 'Satan'!" He spread his arms to the side for effect, then stared condescendingly at Anya. "You just made an unfair and incredibly arrogant comparison, no matter how powerful my ability ends up being. I actually feel like beating you up right now, but I'll be the better person this time."

Anya didn't even have the time to scowl. He _bowed_. "First of all, I take responsibility for what happened earlier. I got angry at Nishijima and lost control for a little while, and I'm sorry for that." Still bowing, he continued. "Secondly, I'll also take responsibility for the attack at the abandoned church."

"! So, it was you back then... Can I ask why exactly have you voluntarily interfered with what you surely knew was our job?"

Orochi sensed Anya's attempt at taking back control of the conversation. 'Not good enough, Devil!' he smirked internally before giving his answer.

"It was a dare."

As expected, Anya immediately ran out of patience and slammed her hands at her desk, the other Devils in the room startled by the noise.

"BULLSHIT!"

"BUT IT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS!" (2)

"...It actually kinda was." added Raynare in a quiet voice while shrugging. She had enough foresight to know that eventually this serious discussion would degenerate into something stupid, so she was ready to take matters into her own hands. "I wanted him to show me some more of his power, so I challenged him to go in there on his own and beat up whoever he walked into." She looked at Asia, as she jumped again when her eyes met with the Fallen's. "He would have done it even if I _didn't_ tell him about the nun being in there."

"And you abandoned your comrades like that?!"

"I have my reasons and I don't have to explain them to you."

"Let's go back on topic." said Orochi, dismissing Anya's outburst. "What I need to know now is whether you're willing, or _able,_ to organize a meeting between me and this Satan."

Anya sighed again. "...As a Pillar Devil, I have enough authority to at least contact him, but don't think I will do it for free."

Orochi was fine with that. As long as it wasn't anything demeaning, he would comply with whatever the girl had in mind. "Fine. Let's negotiate. What do you want?"

"First of all, show some manners and introduce yourself to her. I don't think your name was ever mentioned the entire time, and she's been scared and confused since you've entered the room." She gestured towards Asia.

"Shit, you're right. I can do that much." She turned to the former nun and bowed formally. "I'm Orochi Kamakura, nice to meet you, nun-girl."

"DON'T CALL HER THAT!" Unryuu had finally sobered up enough to regain her bearings, and punched hard Orochi's head. She knew it wouldn't do anything _without her own ability activated_ , but someone had to take control of the conversation back from him.

"What are you punching me for?! I may not have introduced myself, but nobody told me her name either!"

"Do you just give names to strangers however you feel liiiiiiiiiiikeee?"

They were bickering again. Internally, Anya was glad to see this scene: Kamakura seemed incredibly upset with her servant, but it seemed that he was still considering her a friend if they were still able to quarrel childishly like that.

"U-Um, nice to m-meet you too, Orochi-san... I'm Asia Argento..."

Orochi was fortunately able to hear the quiet girl's voice despite Unryuu's loud whining. He put a hand over her mouth in order to speak to the blonde clearly.

"I also have to apologize to you, Asia-san... I couldn't get there fast enough to save you."

"N-No, no, you d-don't have to apologize... It couldn't be helped after all..." She was already looking at the ground.

'Sheesh, talk about awkward. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned my involvement right away...' thought Orochi, half-regretting bringing that topic up.

Anya clapped her hands to gain everyone's attention once more. "Now that introductions are out of the way, I only want one thing from you, Kamakura Orochi. Become a Devil in my peerage!"

 **"Never."**

The pressure was increasing again. **"I will not be a slave. I will not answer to anyone but myself. I'd rather kill myself before submitting to someone else again. ARE WE CLEAR?"**

He was very angry. Anya realized she had to defuse this ticking bomb before it exploded: if the effect of his anger was the same as before, both her twin lances and her **Rune Magic** were completely useless against him.

"OK, OK, I get it! No reincarnation then, I promise!"

Orochi settled down immediately, and the pressure vanished. "...I can only promise to cooperate with you people occasionally. You'll have to settle for that."

"...Fine." She sighed once more, this time out of relief. "Then I'll make the call immediately, but I don't know if you'll be able to meet Beelzebub-sama right away."

"Can't be helped, I guess." He didn't want to wait again, but he supposed he didn't have the right to whine after all the trouble he caused, voluntarily or not. "This guy is a big shot, isn't he?"

"He sure is." confirmed Anya with amusement as she formed a circle near one of her ears

"Hello?" She talked into it. Orochi was pretty much looking at someone making a phone call, but he had to admit that magic seemed incredibly convenient even outside of battle. "Anya Adramelech from the 72 Pillars. I would like to make an appointment with Beelzebub-sama. ...It is about a certain individual my group came into contact with. He has no Sacred Gear, and he is no magician, but he seems to have an ability that we can't identify properly. ...Yes, I'll wait." She looked at Orochi slightly puzzled. "The lady is checking with Beelzebub-sama personally, since you seem to be a special case." She heard a voice again from the circle after a minute or so. "Yes, still here. ...Really? I see. ...Yes, right away. Thank you very much."

The circle vanished into thin air. She facepalmed. "...He wants to see you immediately. As expected of someone who notoriously neglects his actual job to favour his hobbies...".

"Suits me fine. I wouldn't like thinking about a job all the time either." said Orochi with a smirk on his face.

"Of course you say that now, the situation is in your favour after all!" remarked Unryuu.

"Got a problem with that?" He looked at Unryuu with an indifferent expression. He was still upset.

"..."

"Thought so." He turned to Anya. "Now what?"

"We have to travel to the Technology Department of the Underworld, where Beelzebub-sama works as the Chief Advisor."

"I have yet to understand a word out of your mouth when it comes to Devils and their society."

"...We're going to warp to his workplace."

"...Warp?" "Warp."

Orochi wasn't sure if he was okay with the transportation method of choice. "...Warp. Raynare, are you coming?"

"Do you even need to ask? I need this info." answered the Fallen right away.

"...Five people then." muttered Anya. She generated another circle on the clubroom floor. "Step into the circle, everyone." While all five of them entered the circle, she addressed Orochi one last time. "I won't even ask if you have a strong stomach, Kamakura-kun, it would be a stupid question."

"Huh?" Orochi was understandably confused at the statement, but didn't have the time to ponder its meaning.

Everything turned red.

* * *

 **(1) So, apparently I'm full of shit. I said I was going to show her powers in the third arc, but I changed my mind as I wrote down these chapters. I finally decided to ditch Scathach's immortality since I resolved to keep the Phenex family for this story, but Anya's powers are otherwise the same as Lancer's, between the red spears and the Wisdom of the Haunted Ground, which I decided to make into a clan ability and to nerf to the ground because it's incredibly busted otherwise.**

 **(2) A small reference to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged: Alucard and Integra are talking to the phone and the vampire is trying to explain that the mess that is currently around him (he's in Brazil because he was tricked into going on a holiday "anywhere except for Brazil", since Integra had forbid him from going there specifically) is not his fault. He claims that he was minding his own business (which was actually true, unlike... other times) and Integra immediately calls bullshit. Great abridged series by takahata101 of TeamFourStar, I recommend it.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **I think I've handled everything well in here.**

 **A rift has appeared between Orochi and Unryuu, and I have plans on how to solve it although you might see the "how" coming considering it's Orochi we're talking about. But that won't be a subject of interest for a little while actually. The fight between Orochi and Anya is once again brief, my apologies but the madman needs a proper battlefield and a club room is anything but. XD**

 **The big thing here is the Satan of reference, which is not Sirzechs. Surprised? I know you are. Ajuka Beelzebub doesn't do much in the LN and almost never appears in a fanfic, so I decided to include him instead of the usual sis-con we're all used to. Still a Super-Devil according to the LN, and fits better with Orochi's ability considering the passion he puts into investigating the unknown. The one who will reveal what the ability is will be Ajuka himself, so it won't be long now!**

 **And good news, Mr. Guest's wishes that he put in his review have been granted! I mean, I was going to go this route anyway, but you get the meaning. Orochi will NOT side officially with the Devils. Again, this has to do with the role I plan on giving him in the supernatural world, and _that_ will take a while to come to fruition. End of the fourth arc, probably (which, I don't remember if I said it, will be the first original arc).**

 **As I said before, I won't be able to load an update for a little while. I'm leaving for my grandma's house, and visiting my relatives for Easter holidays. I plan to relax and not have to worry about my story nor about my YT channel for a little while. I'll be back Wednesday evening, and probably load an update next Friday, or at least that's the plan.**

 **Reviews are welcome for this update, I'd like to know if this story's current direction seems inspiring and interesting to you. Or if it's complete garbage, one of the two, but hopefully the former XD.**

 **Thanks for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	9. Arc 2 Chapter 4

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I said it was going to be a week and it became 10 days. Whoops. I've spent the weekend with my father and for that reason I've been away from the PC. Considering that in the chapter after this one Orochi's ability will be described properly, I feel bad now that I've made you wait. So I might (I repeat, _might_ ) load up the next one in the next few days.**

 **I'm currently approaching the end of the arc as far as writing goes, I just need to figure out how I want to handle the final battle. And I'm having trouble because there's a bunch of minor characters I have to write down for it, and even if I know some of them will end up being fodder, I don't really want all of them to be, you know?**

 **Anyway, this chapter and the next are kind of a big deal in the story, and after these I'll finally be able to throw Riser in here! e.e**

 **I got a review! Thank you Mr. Guest, I'm doing my best and I hope you keep enjoying the story!**

 **Anyway, surely you're as excited as I am, right? XD I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 4 - Ajuka Beelzebub

A red magic circle appeared in front of a huge marble door. Five people emerged from it.

"The fuck, I feel dizzy as hell! Is this normal?!" swore Orochi, as he felt his head spinning. He didn't expect such an aftereffect from a transportation method of all things, and he usually became a bit vulgar when he was disoriented. At least he didn't throw up.

"You get used to it quick." Anya snickered. "Unryuu did puke the first few times she tried it herself though..."

"HEY! You didn't have to say that!"

"Welcome, Adramelech-dono." The lady Anya had talked to was sitting behind a desk to the side of the huge door. Orochi noted she looked like a completely normal human, which creeped him out slightly even if he was used to it by now. "Beelzebub-sama is waiting for you all. Please knock before entering." The lady gestured towards the door.

"Thank you very much. We'll be going then-"

"Ah, before that, you over there!" She called Orochi over.

"Me?" "Yes, you. Come here for a second please. I need to do the first scan myself before I let you meet the Satan-sama."

Orochi raised an eyebrow, but walked over to the desk anyway, albeit hesitantly. "Just so you know, last time someone told me to 'come over' that person tried to kill me, so you'll forgive me if I'm a bit sceptic about all this." Raynare rolled her eyes at that: she wasn't stupid enough to try that shit again, not after all she saw Orochi do.

"Don't worry, you don't have to do anything." said the woman while lowering her glasses. "Just stay relaxed, it'll take only a few seconds." Her eyes were suddenly glowing blue, and she started gazing at Orochi's entire body. The boy was already uncomfortable; he felt as if the woman was staring into his soul. Which actually wasn't too far from the truth, not that he could tell anyway.

"...There's really nothing in there. How interesting..." he heard her mutter.

"Well?"

"Ah, sorry, you can go now. I'll send what I saw, or rather what I didn't see, to Beelzebub-sama."

Orochi was getting annoyed fast. He had never been a... "procedure" person, and had always hated burocracy. Still, he hoped that the lady _didn't see the mark,_ although it was probably futile.

"Shall we go then, Kamakura-kun?" said Anya, mostly to try and prevent him from lashing out. It would truly be bad if he lost control here of all places.

"..." He silently moved away, heading to the door, and knocked on it as the woman at the counter kept observing him.

Slowly, the marble split into two and moved to the sides. A sophisticated yet powerful voice came from inside.

"Welcome to the Technology Department of the Underworld."

A man was standing in the middle of the room: he wore a green suit with black and yellow stripes. His green hair was slicked back, he had light blue eyes and he was currently keeping his hands joined behind his back.

Several screens and magic circles were planted into the walls, and what was presumably the man's work station was entirely covered by huge stacks of paper. The noise was incredibly loud: it seemed that many different voices were converging into the room, while not necessarily addressing the man. It was pure chaos.

'! This guy... **he's strong...** ' Orochi couldn't help but think that. His fingers were trembling. Hell, his entire body was shaking from the pressure and the maddening noise. An enormous and crooked smile appeared on his face. _His own pressure was leaking; the red aura was appearing again._

Anya and the others became immediately alarmed, and were already feeling unwell, but the pressure emanated from Orochi was shattered in an instant, leaving the boy wide-eyed and stunned into silence.

"Oh, it must be you. You're the one that possesses an undefined ability." said the man, who seemed completely unfazed by the pressure. "Let's get introductions out of the way, so that I can start analyzing your body properly." He put a hand on his heart and bowed slightly. "I am known as **Ajuka Beelzebub** , one of the Four Satans. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"You, what did you do just now?!" Orochi had felt like this in the past only once, _before the orphanage_ : whatever he was doing himself in that moment, he had no idea, but he was overwhelmed in an instant. So he had gone into a panic. Now _that_ wasn't an old feeling, but it was still something he didn't want to experience _again._

"It was simply my ability: **Kankara Formula**. It allows me to control phenomenons through equations." Ajuka gestured towards the myriad of magic circles. "I prepared these circles in advance just in case. Looks like it was a good idea after all. I immediately noticed what your ability was doing to everyone's magic cores, so I activated the circles and blocked the draining process right away."

'A single wrong move will only get me killed, I need to calm down...' thought Orochi. He took a deep breath. "...Sorry about that, I got a bit too excited. It's been such a long while since I met someone like you after all."

"Oh? Have you dealt with Devils before?"

"I have dealt with _monsters_ before. When I have one in front of me I can tell right away."

It was true. There was something about him that absolutely nobody knew, not even Unryuu.

 **He did have a family at one point.**

* * *

His parents were fanatics. They had an insane obsession with power, claiming that there was no limit to what that family could do. Worst of all, they _had the strength to back up their claims._

His father was particularly terrifying in that regard: he was an incredibly talented and powerful fighter, and his physical strength was off the charts. Orochi was often coerced into watching his fights, where he had to observe people three times his father's size grovel to the ground and beg for mercy.

They weren't granted any though. Orochi saw death and recognized it as such for the first time at the young age of 3: his father fought to get stronger, and eliminated his opponents once he had acquired their fighting knowledge through his battles, seeing that they were no longer useful. In a sense, his father was a genius, and his techniques were incredibly effective, so once his mother had noticed that the boy's body had a similar structure to that of his father's, they put him on strict training, disregarding the fact that they were attempting to have a very young child gain a power similar to theirs.

Speaking of powers, most of the fanatism and the pressure into becoming strong actually came from his mother. Orochi had said before that he had never been familiar with the supernatural, and he meant it; he didn't count **magic** as supernatural, because there was a way to create it, a _method_ to utilize, even if he never understood it well, while the supernatural usually could not be explained at all by definition. His mother was a magician, a strong, revered and feared magician, who lead a religious sect called the **White Serpent**. Its purpose was the worship of the **Yamata no Orochi** , a legendary Japanese divine beast with eight dragon heads, eight tails and a gigantic body, that had supposedly been slain by the god Susanoo (although his mother often said that the correct term for the creature would be "Evil Dragon", she explicitly told him she'd break out the whip if he ever called it that. He never dared.).

Apparently the marriage between his parents also had a purpose related to this beast: their union was meant to bring about its resurrection within a human vessel, according to his mother. Something about having "similar blood" with his father, although he didn't know the details. He was given the name of the draconic creature for that very purpose. His maternal grandfather himself had even become a voluntary sacrifice for his sake, or so his mother had told him.

Imagine the disappointment and the anger shown towards the small child when they found out he was utterly _powerless._ Unable to meet his father's demands during training and his mother's expectation when it came to a potential ability that should have emerged, he was often beat up and ridiculed. And a beating coming from a truly strong man like his father _hurt like hell._ Their little experiment had gone wrong and they constantly lashed out at him as a result.

Until he exploded.

He couldn't remember what happened. The only things he could recall from that day were his parents' mansion destroyed and the bodies of some people from the cult on the ground. He felt the need to run, so he ran. In retrospect, he had run _a lot_ despite not remembering anything about the trip: he had somehow traveled half-way across Japan, arriving at the city he currently lived in. When he snapped out of his trance, he was in front of the orphanage. He took that chance and prepared a small paper with his name written on it. Only his name. He took residence in that building, claiming that he was an orphan and as such didn't remember his surname, when in reality he still did. Using that method, he had been able to escape his parents' clutches, and pretty much disappear from the records until he became old enough to live on his own. He then decided to regain his official identity as a Kamakura at the local registry office, and handled all the paperwork himself behind the orphanage's back.

He was able to do so because his parents, in their insane paranoia, had hidden his existence to the world in the first place, as a "safety measure". For all the office knew, the name **Orochi Kamakura** was completely arbitrary, since he didn't exist on the official records, and the boy had no relatives. So he was able to carry it all out without his parents realizing he was still alive, and kept hiding in the city until then.

The point was, Orochi knew what a _monster_ was supposed to look like. He had lived with two of those hideous things for the first 7 years of his life. He was probably one himself. And he thought he had left that kind of people behind, but he realized it was wishful thinking. He _did_ have an ability: whether it was related to the Divine Beast was yet to be established, but it was there, inside a human, which was a place that a strong ability shouldn't reside into in the first place. That ability would make him a target for people like Ajuka.

And he would have never been up to the challenge unless he learned how to control it.

* * *

The Satan chuckled slightly, then started talking once more.

"What was your name, young man?"

Orochi was dragged out of his thoughts. Startled, he answered. "K-Kamakura Orochi."

The Devils and Raynare were amazed. 'Leave it to a Satan to shake this guy up _this much._ ' they thought, actually feeling pity for the human.

"Orochi... Interesting. And you say you've had experience with monsters. I would have liked to ask a bit more about you; shame that it's not any of my business. My current business is with your unknown ability, so let's get on with the analysis."

A table materialized in front of Ajuka. "Please lay down on this table. I shall use my **Kankara Formula** to try and identify it. I promise it will be painless."

That last bit actually did a lot to calm Orochi's nerves. He didn't want to be cut open or something similar, after all. "...Right." He laid down on top on the table.

"Here goes then." Ajuka raised his hands. Several of the magic circles implanted on the walls detached themselves and flew over to the Satan, before fluttering right above several spots above Orochi's body. While he did his job, Ajuka decided to strike a somewhat casual conversation. "You know, the Yamata no Orochi truly existed at some point. As a Japanese young man, you surely are familiar with the legend. How peculiar that you happen to have its name."

 **'Fuck.'**

"I wonder if we'll find anything related to it in you. It would be quite the coincidence, huh?" joked Ajuka.

"H-Hahaha, good question..." Orochi forced out a laugh. He had become afraid. Not of the analysis, but of the fact that this Devil claimed that the creature was real. If the Satan found traces of that beast in him, what would he do? If it was actually the Yamata no Orochi who had awoken or something, could it mean that there was a chance that his mother would be able to track him down?

 _He didn't want to go back under any circumstance. Death first._ That's what he always thought when he reflected on that matter in his years of solitude.

"Hmm, superficially I can only identify a protective wind-elemental seal on your body. It seems to have been put on you by someone else. Are you sure that you aren't lying about you not being a magician?"

'As expected, I can't hide it from them. Fortunately it's a minor factor in the grand scheme of things so I might be able to bullshit my way through for now'

"A-Ah, you must be talking about my tattoo since it is probably the only strange thing that can be seen superficially. It's been there since forever, but I don't know who put it on me since I'm an orphan." Orochi had to lie and hoped that Ajuka wouldn't go and dig into his past in the near future. "At any rate I can guarantee you that I've never even tried to cast magic or anything like that, although I'd definitely try my hand at it if I had someone to teach me, hehehe..."

Suddenly the Satan widened his eyes. "...Oh my. I didn't think I would ever get the chance to examine it despite my long life, but here it is, right in front of me..."

"W-What is it then?" Anya had asked that question before Orochi could.

The circles floated away encasing themselves back into the walls of the room. Orochi was already dreading Ajuka's answer.

"I'll assume that you all are already familiar with the concept of Sacred Gears." started Ajuka. "What you probably don't know is that there's a minor system of little-known abilities that goes side by side in power to Sacred Gears themselves, even reaching Longinus-level power sometimes, which by the way is the strongest level of Sacred Gear." He added that last part for the human of the group. "I was able to recognize one of these abilities within Orochi-kun's body thanks to the records me and my original family, the Astaroths, have kept all these years about those abilities. You can get up by the way, young man."

Orochi immediately stood up. He was already uncomfortable, considering that a bunch of magic circles had just scanned his body all over.

"They were originally known and recorded as **'phenomenons'**." continued Ajuka. "In the past, they had that name given to them because they were something immaterial that caused drastic changes to the environment, much like natural disasters on Earth. However, their original definition didn't fit them well, as my family quickly found out while we studied them. Natural disasters at the very least _make sense._ There is a reason why they appear, a purpose that they follow, and they disappear once that purpose is fulfilled or once they are countered by an equal force."

He looked at Orochi. "The 'phenomenons' did not follow that logic. They are unique, like a Longinus. Their existence is perpetual, and their effects sometimes defy reality itself. They don't have a core, so they can't be defined as magic spells. They only have a container. This container is always a human, so in that sense they do share something with Sacred Gears. Due to their logic-defying nature, we started to call them **Abnormalities**. And you, Orochi-kun, are the container for one of them."

Orochi swallowed thickly. Unryuu didn't think he could get more agitated but by the looks of it she stood corrected.

"T-Then, what exactly is my Abnormality?"

Ajuka closed his eyes and sighed. Then he spoke.

 **"Heaven's Gate."**

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Oh man, a lot has already been revealed with just this chapter.**

 **First of all, readers, I would like to move your attention to the fact that Orochi has almost gone crazy again. It was minor, but I wanted to highlight the fact that he can lose it very easily even due to external factors, and not only when he's emotionally unstable. This little thing has a reason behind it of course, but it will be a little while before it is explained (as in, it won't be in the next chapter).**

 **Once again I demonstrated how much of an asshole I am, since I've hidden the fact that yes, Orochi does indeed have a family. His parents are ruthless bastards and have a great magnitude of power at their disposal. They are the cause, the reason why Orochi is the way he is, both physically and mentally, and most important fact of all they are geniuses in their personal field. They will be described gradually as the story goes on, since even while they stay in the background they are incredibly important to the story for various reasons. The protective seal will be properly explained next chapter however, so I left its presence in this one fairly vague.**

 **The name for Orochi's ability, or rather "Abnormality", is finally revealed! Its power will be explained in the next chapter, but for now I can tell you that the name is almost completely original. I say almost for a very specific reason: you see, the name "Heaven's Gate" was something that truly came out of my mind as an original idea, and it is only a coincidence that one of the supers in the KOF series is called like that. It is the super of a certain Mature who, once again coincidentally, was the secretary of Rugal Bernstein, Adelheid's father, and both Rugal and Adel have their own version of Heaven's Gate called "God Press".**

 **That's right, Orochi's father had to be inspired from Rugal since Orochi is inspired from Adelheid, and the little tidbit about "acquiring fighting knowledge from an opponent" is exactly what Rugal does in King of Fighters.**

 **Finally, the concept of "Abnormality", or rather its name, is taken from Medaka Box, where people have those little convenient things called Skills, which make them Abnormals or Minuses depending on the skill itself.**

 **Phew, that should be everything for now. Next time, Heaven's Gate's ability will be revealed!**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	10. Arc 2 Chapter 5

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **As promised, here's a bit of an early chapter to compensate for the late one I published before. Today we have finally, FINALLY reached the point where Orochi's ability, or rather Abnormality, is explained! And there is also a little more backstory, and _actual OCs!_ Am I a good writer yet or what? XD**

 **I've also gotten out of my slump for the final battle. Let me just say this: this arc is going out of control in length. There are already something like 2 chapters and a half dedicated to said battle, and I'm halfway through. Given the sheer length of it (currently 60 pages total for Arc 2, and the number WILL rise) maybe you can already imagine what exactly that battle will be! I've been incredibly inspired and kinda got ahead of myself with writing, and it's a pretty good thing in my book: it means I'm growing as a writer, don't you agree?**

 **But enough self-praising, let's get on with it. I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 5 - Abnormal

 **Heaven's Gate.**

For something that was named by Devils, it seemed an incredibly illogical name to Orochi. Then again, he didn't know or care much about actual religions. He had had enough experience with the fake one created by his mother. But that didn't matter at the moment. Names are _never_ random, he was the living proof of that fact after all. Which meant that this Abnormality was not completely unknown. So he asked his second question, in a way that couldn't be misunderstood.

"...How dangerous is it?"

Ajuka stared at him with amusement and laughed lightly. "Haha, how peculiar that your first thought would be about how it would affect others. Relax, as long as you don't unleash its **Inverse** form it won't actively harm anyone unless you want it to. ...You're definitely different from your predecessor, you know?"

"Predecessor?"

"Indeed. As I said before, Abnormalities are perpetual. If a wielder dies, they will transfer themselves into someone else. That is in fact another similarity they have with Sacred Gears. Anyway, the former wielder was quite the despicable man, someone who, coincidentally, went missing about the same time you were born according to the data I have on you, so I suppose we can assume he's dead. It was the magician **Leopold Goenitz**." (1)

Everyone missed the slight twitch in Orochi's fingers, even Ajuka.

Orochi was familiar with that surname. His mother was born in Japan, but was in fact German, and _shared the same surname. ..._ Could it be that this Leopold was his grandfather? The person that had sacrificed himself for his grandson's sake? But if that was the case, his family had somehow found a way to transfer Abnormalities into a specific body! It couldn't be a coincidence that Heaven's Gate was passed onto him, or Leopold's suicide would have made no sense! ...Well, his mother was a genius when she wasn't thinking about the sect, so there was a chance, he guessed.

No, it had to be intentional, he reasoned. Aside from the fact that he was meant to be the reincarnation of the Yamata no Orochi, his body was intended to be an agglomerate of different traits and abilities, largely thanks to his mother being paranoid. For example, he had the **Wind Brand** implanted on him before he was even born, courtesy of her magic; it was a tattoo of a single wing with black feathers, printed with a simple spell on the lower left of his abdomen shortly before his birth. Its purpose was to _grant protection to a newborn child_ : the wind itself would "whisper" to the person whenever they were in danger, on paper at least. But what actually happened was that a person with the Brand would be able to clearly sense the wind's movements and how they'd change. So it was partly thanks to the Brand that he was able to predict his opponents' moves so efficiently, although it wouldn't be as useful against someone fast enough to prevent him from reacting at all, and he didn't like to rely on it anyway.

"Never heard of him." He lied. He had to: Ajuka pretty much confirmed that he was aware of the Goenitz family's existence and of all the despicable things they did, and consequently that meant he knew about the White Serpent. There was no doubt in Orochi's mind that Leopold had lead the sect at one point, and passed the torch to her daughter before his suicide. At the very least there was no way that they knew he was the current leader's son.

"It's just as well, I wouldn't have expected you to." said Ajuka, dismissing Orochi's last statement. "As I was saying, Heaven's Gate isn't actively dangerous unless it **inverts**. Which can happen if the wielder doesn't know he has it and awakens it in the wrong way."

His companions all stared at him condescendingly.

"...What?" Orochi was slightly confused as he looked behind and saw their gaze. "What?!"

Ajuka noticed it too and sighed. "...It has already happened, hasn't it? I suppose it makes sense, you wouldn't be so concerned in the first place otherwise. I've personally never seen it invert, but apparently it's supposed to absorb and destroy magic particles in that form."

'Shit, so that's what it was...' thought the boy, reminded of the chaos he unleashed for a short time in Kuoh.

"It does have a different purpose in its _normal_ form, however."

"...Which is?"

"Before I tell you, please keep in mind that my family doesn't know much about this particular Abnormality, so I'm just going to read what little data we currently have." He cleared his throat before materializing another small circle in his hand. A bunch of papers appeared in it and he began to read. "...Heaven's Gate allows the wielder to _absorb shocks of any kind, both physical and emotional, and forces the wielder's body to build resistance against them._ Its influence isn't necessarily limited to the body of the wielder, and it can in fact expand outwards if need be.It doesn't seem to be limitless though: a trauma too intense will partially pierce through the resistance the body has built up and cause damage."

It all made sense now. It was exactly what had always happened with his body when it came to fights: he had already reached a point where normal body blows and conventional human weapons could not harm him at all, and he reasoned he could gain resistance to other things in the future in the same manner, as long as he was willing to withstand the pain.

And when he Inverted, the exact opposite had happened: instead of forcing away the blows, they were drawn towards his body instead, and their momentum was promptly crushed by the Gate. There was also the flood of negativity that came out of him that one time he Inverted. It would normally be suppressed by the Gate, but after reaching that form, it was forcefully pushed out, and pure magic apparently needed to take its place, making him lose control.

"The name seems to have symbolical meaning too, which enhances its power to a point where it is considered a high-tier Abnormality." continued Ajuka. "It is a fundamental structure for Heaven after all: something that becomes harder to destroy the more one hits it, so as to prevent it from ever falling; something that is meant to gather and protect every sentient being, sinners included; something that allows access to paradise and _grants salvation to all."_

That last part hit Orochi hard. He didn't think he could hate his parents any more than he already did, but he was wrong. Heaven's Gate truly had no business residing in someone like him, the fruit of an experiment, born from people rotten to the core. An ability that was meant to save people was forced into someone who wasn't familiar with the concept of "mercy". He was disgusted at both his family and himself. But he wouldn't allow it to continue: it was impossible to get rid of Heaven's Gate without dying, so he had to take responsibility and learn to use it properly, in order to protect his small world that he hoped was still secluded to the people he didn't want to meet.

"...I've decided." He finally showed to Ajuka his resolution. He pointed at him and declared: "If you grant me assistance in learning how to utilize this Abnormality, I'm willing to become one of your assets and share whatever I discover about it. But only if you'll let me keep my humanity! What do you say to that, Devil?"

Both Raynare and the Devils were speechless. They would never dare to speak to a Satan that way, especially Ajuka Beelzebub who happened to be one of the three **Super Devils** existing in this generation. Not only that, but Orochi pretty much demanded a contract with him!

"..." Ajuka stared at him, immobile. And started laughing hard.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I really can't say that I dislike your attitude, Kamakura Orochi the human!" He started power-walking towards Orochi. "Very well, I accept the terms of that contract! For the sake of knowledge I'll become your benefactor! Do we have a deal?" He extended his right hand, and Orochi immediately did the same.

"It's a deal!" He smirked and shook hands with Ajuka. "And you better not turn me into a Devil halfway through, or I'll make sure you regret it!"

"Hahaha, I couldn't do that even if I wanted to, so don't worry!"

"...Eh?"

"The Evil Piece system, which I personally created, is what pureblooded Devils use to reincarnate other beings." explained Ajuka. "It is based on Chess pieces. Their value, and by proxy their containment capacities, varies depending on the piece used. And since Abnormalities are perpetual yet immaterial, they are not quantifiable, so you are impossible to reincarnate, young man!"

"HA! Good to know, that's one less bothersome thing to think about!"

"Well said!"

They laughed together. Surprisingly, they had more in common than expected, which left their audience even more stunned. Until Unryuu broke.

"YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE! DO YOU HAVE NO DECENCY?!"

Orochi answered accordingly.

"SINCE WHEN DID I HAVE ANY? AND STOP YOUR WHINING ALREADY, YOU'VE BEEN AT IT SINCE EARLIER!"

"HOW ABOUT YOU COME OVER HERE AND MAKE ME? I'M SICK OF YOUR BULLSHIT! I HAVE TO PUNISH YOU FOR MAKING ME WORRY THIS MUCH ALL THE TIME!"

"ONCE I'M DONE WITH YOU, THE ONLY THING YOU'LL BE WORRIED ABOUT IS YOUR SORRY ASS!"

They had already stormed towards one another, ready to throw down.

 **"Enough."**

Ajuka wasn't amused at all by the noise they were making, so he put on his powerful voice, the one he used for business partners, or _bugs to eliminate._

 _"..."_

 _"..."_

"...Sheesh, you almost scared me, man. We'll take it elsewhere later so don't get mad." said Orochi calmly. There was nothing to be afraid of, he reasoned: the Satan surely couldn't just kill one of his recent contractors, right? ...Right?

"R-Right, please forgive my transgression!" Unryuu was a lot more frightened, since she didn't have the same amount of slack granted to her.

"I believe I still have to show how I intend to fulfill my part of the contract. Please give me a moment." He stated before creating a magic circle on his finger and point it at his ear. "Nina, come to my office please. Your next long-term assignment has been decided."

In a matter of seconds, the door behind the group opened, revealing a woman in her thirties, with long purple hair gathered in a single tress falling on one of her shoulder. She had dark green eyes and a gentle look on her face. She was dressed in a simple white coat, a turquoise sweater, dark blue jeans and... no shoes? For some reason she didn't have any, and only her black socks were shielding her delicate feet from the hard floor.

"Here I am, Boss."

"Everyone, this is Nina Eisenwald." Ajuka introduced the woman. "She's one of the researchers here at the Department, and she's among the best we have if I may say so."

"...She's human though." remarked Anya.

"True, but to be honest I don't really care what a person is as long as they work well. And she has always delivered without fail in her short time here."

He addressed Nina. "I would like you to start monitoring this young man and his Abnormality, and assist both of their growths as best you can." He put his hand on Orochi's shoulder. "I will organize everything you need in half a day, and send a briefing with all the data I have about said Abnormality so that you can start as soon as possible."

"It will be done." Nina bowed. "But I have to ask: how much time will I have to invest into this assignment?"

Ajuka immediately understood what her main concern was and answered. "I'm not sure myself, so you can go ahead and bring little Agnes with you."

The Satan knew that Nina's 8 year old daughter couldn't be left alone for an indefinite period of time, so it was only fair that he allowed her to stay with her mother.

"I'm glad to hear it, thank you very much."

Orochi felt he had to speak his mind though, and faced Ajuka. "...How many people are going to start stalking me? It's creepy."

"Oh?"

"That Fallen over there." Orochi pointed at Raynare. "She's already keeping an eye on me. Orders from the top, from what little I understood."

"Hey! Are you _trying_ to get me in trouble? That's supposed to be confidential!" Raynare's outburst was completely justified: she didn't want to mess with the wrong people in the precarious position she was currently in.

"No, it's fine." assured the Satan. "In fact, knowing that you're taking direct orders from Azazel makes things easier, since I have no wish to butt heads with him if I can avoid it. I don't mind finding an accomodation for you as well."

"A-Ah, I see... I appreciate the offer." It was truly a kind offer, and she was going to take it without hesitation if it helped her reach her current goal. So she bowed lightly as thanks to the Satan.

"As for you, Orochi-kun, it can't be helped. You did ask for someone who could assist you, didn't you? I'm afraid you'll have to accept my terms."

Orochi's answer was an unintelligible grunt.

"...Well, I think we're done here." said Anya. "Shall we go back for now? I've witnessed enough madness and chaos for one day."

"Yeah, let's. This whole day tired me out more than I expected." agreed Orochi.

"Then I'll see you soon, Orochi-san. Take care." Nina waved at the boy.

"A-Ah, yes, I will. And... thank you for accepting to help me out."

"Don't mention it, boy. It's my job to look after kids."

"Farewell, young ones."

A magic circle appeared under the group of five's feet, and they disappeared once more.

* * *

 **(1) This guy is also from KOF. Not as relevant as Orochi's parents though since he's, you know, dead. Let's just say he's a convenient plot device in this case, even though he's a pretty big deal in the game. His daughter, the genius magician that mothered Orochi, and isn't canon because she doesn't exist in KOF, will be a lot more important comparatively. ...That was a weird sentence.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **First, the "protective seal" called Wind Brand. This spell is completely original: name, power or whatever else you can think of are "flour from my sack" as we say in Italy. If it already exists, I don't know of it. That is what I usually mean by "completely original". *whistles innocently***

 **The concept of "Inverse form" is taken from Date A Live, and you can think of it as an Abnormality's Balance Breaker pretty much.**

 **The actual ability of Heaven's Gate is, once again, completely original. It is important that you readers review and tell me if the concept is interesting enough for you, feedback is important and I already have few reviews to begin with. e.e**

 **Finally, the OCs. Give a big round of applause to Nina Eisenwald, the mother figure with mother hair! I know, it's a death flag, but there are limits to my asshole-ery so don't worry, I'm not gonna kill her. You will see Agnes a little later down the line, once Nina herself settles down in Kuoh. ...Yes, that surname is German and that is intentional.**

 **Phew, that's one checkpoint obtained. Next time, Riser appears!**

 **Thanks for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	11. Arc 2 Chapter 6

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **Been a little while, again. I've been busy with serious business and not-serious-at-all business at the same time, so I'm a little late once again. Sorry about that.**

 **SO! Arc 2 has been finished! I've also got a little prologue chapter for Arc 3 ready and waiting for this big ass arc to finish. Arc 2 ended up being 81 pages long with Times New Roman 12 (I don't know about you people, but that format is standard in Italy). And we've got 8 more chapters after this one. ...It's one hell of a ride now that I'm writing this and thinking about it.**

 **Anyway. Today, we have the encounter with Riser, and here's where things get interesting once again. I'm very tempted to spoil stuff, but I can't, but the feeling is unbearable, help me XD**

 **In the battle with Riser I really gave it my all, so be patient and build hype in the meantime. Right now, stuff you probably won't expect.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 6 - Riser Phenex

Orochi opened his eyes. He was home, on his own once again.

Apparently Anya did him a favour and warped him directly into his room. '...Hm, how nice of her.' he thought.

'What a day this has been.' He recounted everything that happened. He lost control and became dangerous for a little while; he picked a fight with the supernatural, _again;_ he made a friggin' contract with Satan himself! Or, well, one of them.

But most importantly he discovered his true capabilities and the potential he had.

'...Heaven's Gate.' He stared at his hand. 'I need to take control once and for all! ...Man, I hope we start soon, I'm actually looking forward to this!' He thought excitedly.

But that had been a long day and he was mentally tired, tired enough that his headache was coming back, and he was even tempted to skip dinner and go straight to bed.

"Ah, no good, I still need to prepare for school tomorrow..."

...Where was his schoolbag? He looked around everywhere but couldn't find it. Where the hell was it? He had it before they warped to the Underworld...

"ANYAAAAAAAA! MY DAMN BAG IS STILL IN YOUR FUCKING CLUBROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!"

This shout could be heard from afar as a single white-haired boy walked out of a building and ran like a madman towards his school.

* * *

Anya's day was sadly not over.

She and her peerage had already separated from Raynare, who apparently had to go "write her own report". Anya still had to contact Azazel on the matter so she still was unsure if the Fallen girl's claims were true. So she had planned to go to the clubroom one last time for that day, to gather her things and finally call the Governor, but someone was already occupying the room.

Sitting on one of the sofas was a young man in his twenties, with short blond hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery, matching pants and black shoes. The white shirt underneath the blazer wasn't buttoned all the way up, giving a slight view of his somewhat developed chest.

He was Riser Phenex, fellow Pillar Devil, heir to the power of the immortal Phoenix, and _her fiancé._ Not that she wanted to specifically marry this man, mind you: arranged marriages were still a common practice among Devils, especially when it came to pure-blooded Devils like the two of them. More than half of the 72 families called "Pillars" had in fact gone extinct already, and the pure bloodlines had to be preserved no matter the cost. In this particular case though, the "cost" was not something she held much care for, since she was NOT interested in him in any way whatsoever.

"Oh, welcome back, Anya. I've been waiting for you!" The first to speak was Riser. "You're as beautiful as ever. And you too of course, Miss Nishijima." He then regarded Asia. "Oh, there's a new one. You're not too bad yourself."

He was a certified womanizer. Unryuu didn't need the reminder, and Anya definitely didn't need it either. Asia was just creeped out.

"What are you doing here, Riser? It will still be a while before I have to marry you. And I haven't approved this in the first place."

"Don't be like that, Anya. Our marriage was approved by both of our families as you know. And besides, think of the bloodlines! The remaining families of the Pillars cannot be allowed to go extinct, you must be well aware of that. So I came in this filthy world filled with unclean air and _humans_ to take you back to the Underworld in order to start organizing everything we need."

He started assuming a menacing tone. "Imagine, me, a Phenex, breathing this air full of impurity for your sake! Since I've come all this way, I will take you back even if I have to cleanse this room with my flames!" His entire body caught fire all of a sudden: he seemed actually ready to do what he claimed he'd do.

"DAMN YOU ANYA, YOU FORGOT TO WARP MY SCHOOLBAG!" A shout was heard behind the clubroom door, which was opened violently a second later. "I SWEAR I'LL KICK YOUR ASS IF YOU PULL THAT SHIT AGAIN-".

Orochi had walked into an interesting scene that shut him up good. A stranger engulfed in flames was about to engage in combat the three Devils in the room, but it seemed that his sudden appearance had left all four of them paralyzed. To be fair, it was an awkward situation even for Orochi, who actually didn't react immediately.

Anya and Unryuu didn't think the situation could become any worse than it already was. Orochi, the literal talking, walking bomb that he was, had a habit of throwing provocations, very effective ones at that, whenever he thought it was okay for him to open his mouth. But they were already getting ready to battle in that suddenly cramped room, so they reasoned that he couldn't really start a fight that had already commenced. Certainly he couldn't worsen the situation when they had already gone this far.

"..."

"..."

Both Orochi and Riser were silently observing each other with wide eyes. Orochi spoke first.

"...It seems I interrupted something. My bad. I didn't mean to." He looked around. "Ah, there it is. I'm just here for my schoolbag, since _someone_ forgot that I came with it to this stupid club earlier." He spotted his bag laying on one of the sofas. He picked it up and started walking out, everyone else in the room watching him as he did so.

Anya was breathing quietly. Could it be that Orochi was actually behaving properly because there was a stranger in the room? She really had hope now. He would just walk out and forget about what he saw for once. He wouldn't interfere again. He wouldn't cause a mess again. Maybe.

"Ah, before I go, Anya..." Orochi addressed her one last time. He really didn't want to fight with a splitting headache affecting him. Truly, he didn't. So he simply pointed to Riser and asked a completely innocent question. At least in his opinion.

"Who's this loser?"

'HE DID IT AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN!' Such was the collective thought of Anya and her peerage.

"L-Loser?! How dare you insult me like this? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM-"

"SHUT UP!" Orochi impressed himself once again: he really had a short fuse when he felt sick. The moment the man in flames started shouting, Orochi immediately stepped into his personal space and grabbed his face before slamming his head down. And as expected, the man's head made a dent in the floor. Orochi then straightened up and spoke angrily. "I've had just about enough of people raising their voice today! I have a headache, for fuck's sake! So DON'T FUCKING SHOUT!" It also seemed that his tongue was a lot looser when he was sick.

"And you!" He pointed at Riser. "Next time you show up I'll actually break your fucking skull instead of opening cracks on it! AM I CLEAR?"

What Orochi didn't expect was for Riser to stand up on his own.

"...Someone here needs to learn his place..." muttered the Devil.

"What?!" Orochi couldn't believe it. He _heard_ the bastard's skull cracking, he was sure of it. Someone hurt like that was not supposed to get up at all, let alone standing straight like he was doing.

Riser's flames started burning brighter.

"How dare you lay your dirty fingers on me, you low-life? You will pay for this!"

 **"Stop immediately!"**

Anya once again had to prevent the further escalation of the situation.

"I will not accept this. I will not allow you to treat this school as a battlefield! This territory is still mine to supervise, and if you start fighting now I'll do everything in my power to stop both of you!"

The two stared at Anya.

"Hmph, very well. This filth didn't do any harm to me either way so I shouldn't get angry for his sake, I suppose." said Riser. "But I cannot forgive him for insulting me and attacking me immediately after! Shouldn't you be disciplining your servants properly, Anya?"

"Even if I didn't do damage, you're clearly still disoriented, mate. Or maybe you just need glasses if you can't tell apart a Devil from a human." responded Orochi.

"WHAT?!"

"ARE YOU SHOUTING AGAIN?! LOOKS LIKE YOU NEED ANOTHER LESSON IN PAIN-"

Two spears materialized and Anya pointed their blades at the two of them.

"..."

"..."

"Take your fight elsewhere. Last warning." declared Anya.

Orochi and Riser looked at each other in hatred. They both addressed Anya.

"And where the hell do you propose I take this damn fight?"

"Exactly. If this bastard is truly a human and you won't allow us to fight in your territory, where will we have our duel?"

"...What duel?" As usual, Orochi was one step behind when it came to Devils and their usual line of thought.

"Use your head, low-life. A high-class Devil is not _like_ you, we don't have unofficial battles outside of emergency cases. So I have no choice but to formally challenge you now that you've dared to hurt me and my pride!"

Orochi smirked. "...Sure, fine by me. Say my name then."

"!"

"You're going to need to do that if you want to have an official duel. That's how it works with "official" battles, doesn't it?"

"..."

"...You don't even know my name."

"S-Should I?" (1)

 **"Stop teasing him, Orochi-kun. It's not as easy as you think."**

Suddenly a familiar magic circle appeared in the room, from which emerged someone Orochi didn't think he would see again this soon. A feeling that Anya shared.

"A-Ajuka Beelzebub?!"

"Beelzebub-sama?!"

"! Beelzebub-sama! ...Wait. Waitwaitwait, why does a human know the Satan personally?!"

"I shall explain that right away, Phenex Riser-kun, so please settle down. Both of you. Let's sit for a moment." Ajuka gestured to the sofas.

The two of them decided to heed the Satan's request. Taking one sofa each, of course. Ajuka sat near Orochi.

"First, the reason why I know this human, Riser-kun. This is Kamakura Orochi." He gestured to the boy at his side. "The wielder of an ability I wish to gather data on, and a potential ally to us Devils. As for why I am here, well..." He pointed at Orochi's hand. The boy looked at it and, sure enough, one of Ajuka's circles appeared on the back. "I heard everything that was going on from a circle I implanted on his hand, and decided to take advantage of the situation-"

"Hold it, Ajuka! When did this happen? I didn't even..." He came to a realization. "...When we shook hands, huh?" Ajuka nodded with a smile, and Orochi clicked his tongue. "I definitely have to learn a lot if I managed to fall for such a cheap trick. And didn't you leave the stalking part to Nina-san?!"

"Oh? Is it so wrong of me to briefly point another pair of eyes in your general direction just because I feel like it?"

"It's _your_ eyes we're talking about, and it pisses me off immensely! I would like to keep my privacy, you know?"

"Beelzebub-sama, ignoring this fool's babbling, if I may, what do you mean by 'take advantage of the situation'?" interrupted Riser.

"I heard you folks talking about a duel. Orochi-kun, Devils utilize a certain form of friendly competition in order to resolve disputes, called Rating Game. You won't be able to find a proper battlefield unless you abide by the rules of said competition. The problem is, of course, that you're no Devil."

Ajuka turned to Riser. "I have a contract with this human, which will allow me to gather data about his ability, but in order to do so I have to wait for him to start fighting. I simply want to take advantage of the situation, as I said, and make an exception in order to start studying him more quickly."

"...In other words, you intend to organize a Rating Game between him and me, sir?"

Ajuka smiled once more. "Precisely. I want to test his capabilities using the Rating Game system."

"I have to object then, Beelzebub-sama." declared Riser. "He has no peerage at all for obvious reasons, while I have a complete one. He will be crushed in an instant."

Orochi narrowed his eyes at that statement, a movement that Ajuka noticed right away.

"...I suppose he needs a little time to get used to his ability then. Trust me, Riser-kun, when I say he will give you the battle of your life if you give him a chance. He did find out about it very recently so all he needs is time. How much do you need, Orochi-kun-"

 **"Three days."** His answer was instantaneous and reeked of confidence. "I only need three days to surpass this guy and show how wrong he is. In fact, I'll do even more than that in order to prove my point." He stood from his seat and glared at Riser. "I'll bring one person with me to the Rating Game, and I'll make sure that this person becomes _capable of defeating your second in command_ in the next three days. How does that sound, Riser Phenex?"

"Huh? Why should I accept such a ridiculous proposition?"

"Simple." Orochi crossed his arms and put a wide smile on his face. " _If I win on my own, your reputation will go down the shitter._ In the eventuality that you lose, you'll be able to save some face as long as there is someone fighting on my side. I'm doing you a favour out of pity, while still demonstrating that I can improve enough to compensate for two people despite the short time limit."

"Hohoho, quite the bold claim, Orochi-kun." Ajuka chuckled at his client's reasoning. "But you're not wrong. I intend to try and keep the Rating Game as secret as possible, yet it is quite easy for a leak to occur. For Riser-kun's sake, I will allow it. But before I make it official, I feel that both of you need a proper incentive."

""What?""

"Yes, an incentive. I shall grant a wish to the winner, no matter what it is. BUT, for fairness's sake, I'll need you two to state it now. You first, Riser-kun."

"...Very well. Then I also shall take advantage of the situation. If I win this battle, please establish the marriage between me and Anya Adramelech right away, rather than have us wait!"

"EEEEEEHHHHH? Y-You! Are you serious?" Anya was obviously not happy with how the situation evolved.

"My apologies, Adramelech Anya-kun, but I'm afraid that right now your opinion is invalid since you have no say in this. So please refrain from speaking." Ajuka said in his business voice. "I will allow it. What about you, Orochi-kun? What is your wish?"

"I don't really want anything else from you. Just give it to Anya, I don't know what to do with it."

Ajuka thought about the boy's answer for a second while observing Anya herself. As he figured, she didn't expect such an answer from him; a glimmer of hope seemed to have found its way in her eyes. At first Ajuka imagined that Orochi had said everything he said just to spite Riser, but by looking at him afterwards, for a single moment a hint of a genuine smile appeared on the young man's face. It was intended: his goal was truly to help her out despite the fact that there seemed to be... disagreements between her group and himself.

"...Very well. Then I shall consider your wish as 'To grant a wish to Anya Adramelech'. I will allow it. Stand up, Riser-kun. Both of you gentlemen, face each other."

They obeyed the order. "Orochi Kamakura, Riser Phenex. Your Rating Game will commence three days from now. You may prepare as you see fit, but you will swear that you shall fight fairly no matter what."

"...I swear." "I swear!" They shook hands.

"Then I'll see you two at the Rating Game. Good day."

And just like that, Ajuka had disappeared.

Silence reigned in the room for a short while.

"I'll be leaving too then. I'll look forward to what a paltry three-days training will be able to accomplish for you."

With that statement, Riser also disappeared using his own circle.

Only the Devils and Orochi remained. Anya immediately took the chance she was granted, or at least she wanted to. She had every intention to start calling that foolish human a bunch of names until his ears fell off to compensate for the chaos he caused in the span of a few hours, but her train of thought was abruptly stopped by his words.

"Don't even start, my head is about to split open and I don't need this right now." He turned around, picked up his schoolbag that he had thrown to the floor after deciding to attack Riser, and walked to the door like he had originally intended to do. "I'm not doing it for your sake, at any rate. I'm just paying back my debts."

The door of the ORC clubroom closed behind him.

Raynare was _not_ going to like this development, he thought.

* * *

 **(1): A combination of two references from DBZ Abridged. In the episode where Vegeta has been injured by Krillin in the Frieza Saga, the Saiyan asks Dende to heal him, and Dende agrees on the condition that he says his name, which he doesn't get right. And the "Should I?" part is from the Meta Cooler special, where Cooler doesn't recognize Vegeta because, to be fair, they never met. "Do you really not know who I am?" "...Should I?"**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **So, be honest, who expected all this? This is one of the points in the story where having Ajuka in Sirzechs' place serves me well. The big shot that created the Evil Piece system and the Rating Games surely has a way of accomodating for a human in a special battle, yes?**

 **Speaking of the human, he was kinda vulgar in this chapter, courtesy of the headache he's been having the whole day. Whenever he isn't completely there with his head, I plan to have him behave like this, by highlighting his aggressiveness towards people, so please bear with it, as you should be able to since this is a M-rated fic.**

 **Let me just say, he's reaching his boiling point for the day. So be hyped for next chapter.**

 **It's going to be a 16 against 2 Rating Game! Well, more like 15 against 1 while Raynare fights Yubelluna. I intend to publish only a single chapter where Orochi and Raynare train with the help of the Devils, because I want to explain the rest of what those two will be capable of during the RG itself.**

 **Not much else to say this time. Next chapter, Inversion.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	12. Arc 2 Chapter 7

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I'm only late by a few hours this time! And it was because of actually important reasons! Too bad they're personal, so I'm not going to tell you anything, nyeh! XD**

 **Alright, so, this chapter. This chapter, I'm gonna warn you guys, is a bit heavy with emotions and edge (no cutting or anything though so don't worry about that). If you happen to be sensitive about that stuff, you're in luck because I think you should be able to skip this chapter and read the next one without missing much of anything. To _those_ kinds of people, I ask then to be patient and wait for next week.**

 **Not much to add to be honest. I'm deliberating a change in the synopsis because I feel it might not be all that great in retrospect, and very few people are reviewing, and that makes me a sad panda.** **Despite that** **, plenty of favorites and follows so thank you guys for the support you've given me!**

 **I'll see you strong-hearted people at the bottom.**

 **EDIT: I forgot the title for the chapter, whoops. It's not like you'd be able to notice, but it _is_ something to laugh about, yeah? XD**

 **Enjoy.**

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Arc 2 Chapter 7 - Truth

"...Nina-san, why am I here again?"

"Don't ask silly questions, Orochi-kun. You know why."

"Well yeah, but it's so _odd_ for me _._ And you people from the Department did things behind my back again so me being pissed is understandable I think."

"Careful with your words, there's a child here."

"She can't understand Japanese anyway!"

Orochi had found himself in front of an unfamiliar Western-style house. It was late evening of the same day he was challenged to a Rating Game by Riser Phenex. With him were Nina Eisenwald, her daughter Agnes, and the Fallen Angel Raynare, who was also slightly creeped out by the sheer wealth that Ajuka Beelzebub demonstrated. The Satan had promised that everything would be ready in half a day, and it only took a few hours instead.

"By the way, your belongings have already been transferred in this building along with your school equipment."

"Too quick?!" "How did you even know where my stuff was?!" was Orochi and Raynare's synchronized response.

"Silly Raynare-san, obviously I found it in Orochi-kun's apartment!"

"HOW FAR WERE YOU GOING TO GO WITH YOUR STALKING, RAYNARE?!"

"...And there he goes." was Raynare's exasperated answer. "I wanted it to be a surprise! ...Or rather, I didn't want that detail to be known at all considering this development! What did I do to you, woman?"

"Nothing, hahaha! I just enjoy messing with brats!"

 _"Mutti, why are Bruder and Schwester shouting?"_ The feminine voice of a child interrupted the trio's banter. (1)

They all looked at the voice's owner. Agnes Eisenwald, Nina's daughter, was looking at them with slight curiosity in her expression. She had light violet longish hair flowing down her back and deep blue eyes, and wore a simple red shirt and a pair of overalls with white shoes. She had just addressed her mother in her native language, since she didn't know any other way to express herself properly to Japanese people, being the 8-year-old that she was. She also had poor knowledge of the supernatural, which is why she currently only saw Raynare as the human Yuuma Amano, and assumed her to be a Japanese human girl. 'I will have to explain it to her one of these days.' thought Nina.

 _"Sorry Agnes, they're just whining, don't worry about them._ Let's go in, you two." A pair of angry grunts were the only answer to Nina's request, made in Japanese after answering her daughter.

Apparently the four of them were going to live in that huge house together from there on. Ajuka even went so far as to tell Nina to go sign the papers for Orochi's official first adoption! Everything was done so quickly that even Orochi himself had barely any time to register what was happening before he was pushed out of his apartment and brought there against his will. When asked for his reasoning, Ajuka simply told him that it was his fault for "hurrying things up to that extent". 'Bullshit, you were the one who suggested the damn Rating Game!' That thought emerged again in the boy's mind.

Raynare was equally angry. Orochi had decided to drag her into something she didn't give two shits about, and had to resign herself to become his training partner _earlier than she had planned._ Her intention was definitely to follow the human and fight alongside him, but like him she was caught in the flow before she could protest and ended up there, forced to share a roof with not one, but three humans!

The house's interior was just as big as the exterior: it truly looked like a high-class building, not quite like a hotel or anything but definitely something that was incredibly expensive.

"What do you think, kiddos? Pretty cool, is it not?"

"...That really isn't my main concern right now." Orochi was _not_ done whining. "How long do I have to stay here?"

"Of course, until I decide to send you back. And since nobody here knows how much time will be spent studying Heaven's Gate, it won't happen for a while."

"...I've never agreed to this, so unfair..." Orochi also had to resign to his fate, and muttered that after a long sigh.

Agnes was already running around the house, exploring her new home while laughing excitedly.

"Now, since Orochi-kun is in such a hurry, you can unpack later." said Nina. "We need to start preparing a training schedule as soon as possible, so..."

She addressed Orochi. "I'd like you to tell me in what direction exactly you plan on focusing your training. There's a bunch of things that we should be able to pull off in 3 days, but some of the other stuff I had in mind will have to wait depending on your answer."

The atmosphere in the living room where they currently stood became heavier: Orochi had suddenly adopted an incredibly serious expression, and glared fiercely at Nina. Raynare had never seen such a powerful glare before. Aside from Azazel's, that is!

"W-What is it?" Even Nina was slightly shaken by his gaze.

He looked away, seemingly having made up his mind about something. He opened his schoolbag, which was still in his hands and had not been dropped once all that time due to how fast his situation had developed. And just in that moment Agnes was running towards his general direction.

 _"Agnes, come here. I've got something cool for you."_

 **He spoke German.**

Nina was certainly not expecting that, and neither was Raynare. Why was a Japanese boy speaking German so naturally?

Agnes stopped running as soon as she heard understandable words coming from the Japanese boy. _"Oh, you can speak German, Bruder?"_

 _"I sure can. Look at this."_ He pulled out a colorful toy from his schoolbag, a smile on his face. _"This is the Cube of Rubik. Have you ever seen one of these?"_

 _"Yes, I've learned how to solve it! ...I only need to follow the instructions I wrote down from the Internet, hehe."_ Agnes laughed sheepishly.

 _"Hey, even that is pretty good for someone your age! Go solve it, and if you can do it before dinner, ice-cream is on me tonight."_

 _"Yay, ice-cream! I will be back soon!"_ She ran upstairs, presumably to the bedroom she had already claimed for herself.

Orochi stood up from his kneeling position and returned his gaze to his previous target. "I suppose I'm too deep into this to pull out now. I'm convinced that it is impossible to hide myself properly from people like you and Ajuka, Nina-san. You will eventually find out on your own so, at this point, asking for cooperation seems my best bet."

"...What are you talking about?"

"Here's what I'll do." answered Orochi without missing a beat. "I will tell you everything you need to know about me, so that you'll be able to decide where my training should start. But I won't accept interruptions of any kind, and the same goes for you, Raynare. AND, as my first and single request, I beg you to not tell Ajuka anything about what you're going to hear now. Too many people knowing about me will put into danger everyone I know, Agnes included. Is that clear?"

Nina was baffled. Once again, Orochi Kamakura was able to conquer an unfamiliar battlefield with mere words and his brutal honesty. "...Very well. I'll listen to what you have to say, if you promise me that one day you'll share this... information with Beelzebub-sama too."

"...I promise. ...Where should I begin?" Orochi sat down on the big green sofa in the living room, as Nina and Raynare stared at him.

"I suppose I should introduce myself once again. My name is Orochi Kamakura, 16 years old. I've lived in this town since I was 7, and the orphanage you dragged me out of took care of me and my basic needs until today. I'm a student at Kuoh Academy, and my tuition was paid for by the orphanage itself, once again until today. ...Officially speaking, the surname Kamakura is completely arbitrary. _But that's a lie I crafted myself, in order to hide from my abusive parents who currently live on the other side of Japan, completely unaware that I'm alive._ "

Nina swallowed thickly. Among the data she received from Ajuka, there was a speculation that Orochi could in fact be affiliated to... certain dangerous people.

"Officially speaking, once again, I did not exist until I signed the papers that gave me a name. My existence was hidden to the world due to the power I was supposed to possess: the power of the Evil Dragon **Yamata no Orochi.** I was supposed to be its vessel, but I ended up being a fluke, a failure, despite my parents' best efforts. The Evil Dragon was to become "blessed by the wind", which would make him a lot harder to kill if it ever resurrected and as such that enchantment was implanted into my body in the form of the **Wind Brand.** As a result, I probably can only perform wind magic even if I wanted to do something else, which I don't."

 _He was even aware of the existence of magic._ Nina was now sure of what kind of hellish place Orochi had crawled out of.

"My father's name is Soichiro Kamakura. ...My mother's name is **Annabelle Goenitz**."

The woman's blood froze at that confirmation. Back in Germany the Goenitz household was well known and feared by those aware of the supernatural world. And the boy was a member of that very household.

"Y-You are-"

"My mother has lead the White Serpent Sect for 16 years now. Before her the leader was Leopold Goenitz, who is almost undoubtedly my grandfather. He committed suicide on purpose, in order to allow Heaven's Gate to enter my body as another form of protection for the Evil Dragon."

By now Orochi's voice had already become monotone. "...I've been part of the Sect for the first 7 years of my life, and I still remember perfectly how to execute several of Mother's most powerful spells even if I've never been taught how to refine magic particles. Such a thing can happen due to me also developing a strong memory capacity like Father's, alongside having a physically powerful body. With the inclusion of Heaven's Gate, I was supposed to become a perfect being, but the Dragon never emerged, and as such I came into this world as utter trash instead."

He bended forward, a crooked grin appearing on his face. "I was a worthless human living a worthless life! My hatred for the world became immeasurable, and I turned into a _monster!_ I learned of how easy it was for someone like me to discard useless people and still give a hand to those helpless fools, and grew on my own while developing myself the way I was supposed to!"

He held his face with one of his hands. His entire body was trembling. "A-And then Nishijima decided it was ok to barge into my life like a wrecking ball, and my hatred d-disappeared just like that, and I despised myself for it! I was s-suddenly left with _absolutely nothing to my name_ , and what grew next w-was the urge to _raze everything to the ground like the m-monster I am, just to escape from it all-_ "

He was suddenly hugged by two figures.

"Stop it. ...Please, just stop..."

"This isn't you. I swear I'll kill you if you keep this up, orders be damned."

Despite the begging coming from the two women (which sounded more like a threat when coming from Raynare's mouth), he was still trembling and giggling like a madman, and the flood of tears that streamed down his face was the unmistakable sign of a mental breakdown. He was about to lose control again.

 **"I'll destroy everything! DestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroyDestroy-"**

A spark reached Orochi's neck, and he immediately collapsed on the carpet unconscious. Nina had apparently used a taser on him, to Raynare's surprise.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! That was _not_ a good idea, when he wakes up he will-"

Nina was oddly calm despite the Fallen's outburst. "When he wakes up, you will stop him. Someone has to, and tasers won't be effective for long against Heaven's Gate. Besides, I need to think of an excuse to give to Agnes."

"And how exactly do you expect me to do that?"

"Think of something, I don't care what!" Nina was trying to keep her cool, however that intent could not last long in such a situation. She was a mother after all. " **This poor child's loneliness drove him to despair, and I won't allow him to be on his own any longer!** "

"!"

"Don't you too want to do something for him? He's so far gone that he was even reluctant to the idea of being adopted despite what he's been through! It's up to us, Raynare-san! If we don't do it, **who else will?** "

"..."

Raynare had to admit that Nina had a point. Even she couldn't help feeling pity for the boy currently laying face-down on the floor. He was left behind by the world, and his answer was to leave the world behind, in a cycle of absolute solitude. He held back his murderous urges and actually helped people out despite what his nature was telling him to do. But in that single day, his apparently fragile mind was overwhelmed by people and events both. He reached his limit, and threatened to explode after sending away the one person that didn't need to hear those hateful words, and didn't deserve complete annihilation.

They both looked at his crumpled form, and decided to lift him up and carry him to one of the bedrooms in the upper floor. "This fool... while his mind was collapsing, he was still thinking about little Agnes's safety..."

"That single fact gives me hope, Raynare. It means that he still has a shred of mercy to spare for humanity as a whole. I'll do my very best to allow him to gain control, not only because we'll have a powerful Inversed Abnormality on the loose otherwise, but also for the sake of his future!"

* * *

 **(1) The words mean "Mom", "Brother" and "Sister", in that order. Get used to them.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **This is sadly another one of those chapters I'm a bit iffy about, mostly due to how heavy topics are involved, and the fact that I have no experience with them. I hope to have been able to convey those strong emotions well enough, at the very least.**

 **I made it so that Orochi's surrogate family had German origins for this very chapter. Along with a loving mother figure, I wanted to add the slightly oblivious little sister figure as well, and just like that Agnes was born. The name isn't inspired by anything but my personal preferences if you were wondering: I just really like that name, and would love to give it to a potential future daughter if I ever get that chance. Anyway, I wanted to have Nina be already aware of how dangerous a Goenitz magician could be, and for the sake of future arcs I decided to give her a German surname and highlight properly the notoriousness of that wicked family that Orochi had been a part of.**

 **Of particular significance is the fact that Agnes was sent away by Orochi before allowing himself to lose control. I want Orochi's character to be somewhat detached from everyone and everything, someone that helps people simply because he feels it's what he should be doing with the strength he has, and yet someone who will not always grant mercy, someone who can get angry, sad or depressed, a _human in a monster's clothing_ if you will, with all the problems it entails as you saw. As a human I want him to have the moral values a modern human should have, among which is "children are innocent", and keep, however, his violent impulses as a constant. I plan to capitalize on those moral values in future arcs so look forward to that.**

 **And that's it I believe. His outburst speaks for itself, really. e.e**

 **Next time, the promised training session.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	13. Arc 2 Chapter 8

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been a little more than a week once again, whoops. No excuses this time, I was just being lazy.**

 **I've also been stuck on a certain point of Arc 3. In fact, it's been three weeks since the last time I wrote down something, FeelsBadMan. Luckily I have plenty of chapters yet to be released so this shouldn't be an issue in the long run (we're talking 10-ish chapters after this one).**

 **There is also the fact that I'm having... other mundane concerns, let's say. I play Fire Emblem Heroes, and one of my favourite characters has been announced, and will be released in two days as Nintendo usually does. Weather is shit lately in North Italy: shitty enough that the sky doesn't know how to behave. I have to upload stuff on my YT channel. Stuff like that. Very mundane.**

 **But that's neither here nor there. Today, we have a training session! And I hope it doesn't suck, because again, this is a first for me.**

 **I got a review, so let me answer it real quick. Thank you, PoseidonisPlayz. It's not a weird review at all, it IS a place where a reader can express his or her thoughts about a story after all, and I'm also glad that we share the same opinion on the matter.**

 **Alright, now that that's done, I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

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Arc 2 Chapter 8 - True Strength

"Huh? Everyone is here, what's the occasion?"

The next day, Orochi had been brought to a vast and uninhabited grassy hill via magic circle by Raynare. Nina wanted to avoid the eyes of unrelated people for obvious reasons, but still needed Orochi to fight in an open space as preparation for the Rating Game with Riser.

Orochi had woken up very late in the morning that day and didn't remember anything about his outburst. Nina and Raynare told him that he had collapsed from exhaustion and couldn't wake up no matter how hard they tried, so he had to skip school that morning. It was a lie, but they had no choice: adding burden to Orochi now was going to be detrimental to the training, so they decided to tell him the truth after the match.

As requested by Nina, Anya and her peerage were also brought along, while Agnes was temporarily left to the care of the Technology Department.

"I need to see how good you are at crowd control. You and Raynare-san are going to face 16 people on your own and they will definitely fight you in groups. And since you went and made that stupid bet about Raynare-san and Riser Phenex's Queen piece, there's a good chance that you will fight apart from each other for most of the Game. So... everyone here, aside from me and Asia who still has to develop offensive abilities, will attack you at once. Once we're done Asia-chan will take care of you four, so don't hold back, okay?"

"...That would be a three-against-one scenario then..." muttered Orochi. He would have to face Raynare, Anya and Unryuu, the latter of which he still held a grudge against.

"...I'm not looking forward to this." said Raynare, bothered by that entire situation. "I don't know how I'm supposed to match up with Heaven's Gate, but I guess I'll have to commit to what I decided, even if this human has made inconvenient bets behind my back..."

"From my point of view, you have the slight advantage when compared to me though." argued Anya. "You saw him fight seriously, while I didn't."

"That's right. And I'm even worse off than you two." added Unryuu. "I haven't felt his blows yet. ...Well, putting our usual meaningless squabbles aside I mean."

"Well, no point in wasting any more time. Since you all gave me the time of day, I should show my gratitude." declared Orochi.

He decided to suddenly discard his jacket and remove his shirt. His remaining clothing was a black undershirt, black jeans binded by a belt, and black shoes. Nina, seeing Orochi getting ready to fight, had already distanced herself.

"Aaaaalright, since everyone's here I should treat this as a special occasion. I will fight at full strength so don't hold back, yeah?"

"That's how you show gratitude?!" Three people protested his actions in unison.

"By the way, Nishijima, before I get going I should ask. Are you really going to fight?"

"Of course I am, why would I be here otherwise-"

"Then I'll start with you."

"...Eh?"

Too late. He had already started running towards her. Twenty meters were covered in little more than a second: he jumped forward and divekicked her in the face.

Unryuu barely had the time to cross her arms in front of her but such a flimsy defense was of course not enough to withstand the blow: she was dragged several meters back with Orochi before he lost his momentum.

"Gh! No warning at all?!"

"Don't be ridiculous, there is no such thing as a warning in a war. And I did warn you actually so stop whining and fight, you traitor!"

"You're still mad about that?"

He jumped back and landed five meters in front of her. "We haven't solved that particular problem yet. So yeah, still angry." Despite what he said about being mad, his expression displayed anything but.

"You're using that as an excuse though! Look at that stupid smile on your face!"

"Maybe, but it gives me a reason to beat you up without regrets!"

He prepared to charge again, but before he could start running he sensed movement from behind. The Wind Brand seemed to be doing its work properly even against multiple supernatural creatures: with it he could sense the brusque movements the wind would make whenever someone tried to run at him, and he was even able to tell the kind of movement a currently unseen opponent would perform. So he ducked, as _a blood red spear pierced through the air above him._

"Straight for the head, huh?"

He made a sweep behind him, but it was such an obvious reaction that Anya didn't need her ability to tell her that she should have jumped.

"You said to not hold back, didn't you?" A second spear dived to the now-crouching Orochi, but he pulled back his leg and sprang towards Anya. He grabbed the spear and pulled it above him, intending to drive his feet in her face once he reached an acceptable height.

"Nice try, but you haven't seen enough of me to predict this!" declared Anya suddenly.

Several runes appeared on the base of the lance Orochi had grabbed. Before he could ponder what their purpose was, they immediately disappeared, before reappearing on his body.

"?!"

He didn't have the time to think of what to do. A foot planted itself in his face, and he tumbled back as Anya distanced herself from him with the force she produced from it.

 ***BOOM!** *

The runes exploded, and lifted a cloud of black smoke around Orochi.

"Don't worry, Orochi-kun. It's pretty much fire magic, which means that you'll be able to build resistance to Riser's attacks, or at least some of them."

" *cough* Yeah, it was a good idea on your part..."

The smoke dissipated, and Orochi was currently bended on one knee. He looked at her with a wild grin, despite the slight burns on his person.

"By the way, no need to use wind magic with those **Runes** of yours. I've got that covered."

"?"

She didn't know about the Brand, so she was understandably confused.

He was suddenly kicked in the face.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He flew several meters back before crashing into the tall grass. He stood up immediately and looked at the perpetrator.

Unryuu stood close to where he was kneeling a moment before, with a leg raised and outstretched in his direction. Said leg was covered by a layer of some kind of rock, brilliantly shining under the sun.

"This is my **Adamantite Armor**. I won't lose to Orochi-kun as long as this defensive layer protects me."

"..."

Orochi had felt a lot of pain from that blow. Whatever the material of that leg was, his body couldn't withstand it.

'Well, Heaven's Gate will eventually neutralize that ability too, but still...'

He stood up while putting a hand to his temple: sure enough, he had started bleeding.

"...I see. A straight fight with someone that can take my blows well and retaliate properly will be dangerous for me. I should do something about it."

"You should, but the question is, can you?"

"Heh. Just watch me. If you can, that is."

"?"

He disappeared.

"! What the-"

A split second after, _her world moved brusquely to the right._

 **"Gespenst."** (1)

He somehow moved right behind her without her noticing and made a sweep kick to her left side, and she was knocked aside as a result. Unryuu was barely able to recover in mid-air, and landed on her feet before feeling a fist slamming onto her forehead and sending her to the ground.

Orochi straightened up and clicked his tongue. "Tch, that armor is annoying. Anyone else would have passed out."

Sure enough, Unryuu was still conscious; in fact, she didn't take much damage either, it was mostly her pride that was wounded.

"H-How?!"

"Hm, wouldn't you like to know?" was the sarcastic response.

On the grass under him, a huge rune appeared. Unryuu noticed it and picked herself up before running away.

"...Hah, you think I'll fall for that again?! **Gespenst!** "

He disappeared once more. However, Anya was prepared: she had activated her **Wisdom of the Haunted Ground** , and was able to foresee what Orochi was about to do. She spun around and made a thrust with her spear in a seemingly empty space at seven o'clock.

That empty space was suddenly occupied, and Orochi had to stop an approaching harmful object from piercing his body, by grabbing its base with his hands.

"...It happened again." he said. "This isn't the first time that you adapt your actions to match mine. Just what are you doing exactly, Anya?"

"Figure it out on your own. I did the same with that technique you just displayed so it's only fair."

"! You figured it out so quickly, even though it's a technique I developed just now... Quite impressive."

"HUH?! What do you mean, 'just now'?!" Anya simply could not believe that statement. "What kind of mad genius are you to just create something so strong this quickly because 'you need to do something'? I already knew this, but you are absolutely ridiculous!"

 ***STAB***

Someone's heel planted itself in the boy's left temple. He was suddenly dragged forcefully to the ground, as he felt something like a sharp nail piercing the side of his head that wasn't kicked by Unryuu.

A simple physical blow from something that wasn't covered in Adamantite would be nothing to Orochi though, so _why was he in pain?_

He looked to his left as he laid on the ground and saw Raynare with a triumphant smile. He then moved his hand towards the source of his current pain. Apparently, _a long transparent nail had been planted into his temple._

'Just where did this thing come from?!' "Khhh!" Orochi released a grunt of pain as he removed the offending "object" from where it had taken residence. Immediately after, of course, blood started pouring out of the hole, dripping from his chin and staining the grass.

"How do you like that, Kamakura?" said Raynare with amusement in her voice. "This little idea came to me the day you Inverted. As I tried to stop you from rampaging, the spear I had created was fragmented and unstable due to your influence. This morning I had unexpectedly a lot of free time, so I experimented a bit and found a way to replicate these **Fragments** and have them emerge from any part of my body as concentrated solid light at any given moment. Can you dodge a weapon that you can't see, I wonder?"

She had put it like that, but the truth was that she didn't feel like going to school that morning. Orochi didn't know any better because he was out cold until a few hours before so it was fine to lie a little about it. Of course there was no particular reason why she had skipped school that day. None at all.

Orochi found himself surrounded by the three supernatural creatures that were playing the part of his opponents.

"Um, Nina-sensei, aren't they g-going too far right now?!" Asia, who had been watching the fight with unease up to that point.

"Not at all, Asia. A normal approach will never work against Heaven's Gate, so they have to hit him with everything they have and hope he doesn't have resistance against their blows. He's impossible to harm otherwise, and his usage of the Abnormality will never improve like that. ...in fact, I think this training session will end soon. Observe."

"?"

The older woman knew that it was only a matter of time. Only a few seconds before Orochi decided that he was sick of playing around, and knocked them all out.

She was sure of this due to the information she had dug up the night before, while Orochi was recovering, from the medical archives she had requested urgently from Ajuka.

The boy's father, Soichiro Kamakura, and all of his ancestors for that matter, were truly a work of art for humanity. They had always possessed peculiar bodies that were made for the sole purpose of _gathering knowledge_. This was of course related mostly to just their brains in the past, but Soichiro had taken it a step further and learned how to assume complete control over both brain and musculature, as a way of enhancing his memory capacity in order to memorize his opponents' moves, and also as a way to shape his muscles into a desirable form in order to replicate them and even refine them sometimes.

Not only was this peculiar condition genetic, it seemed to be able to constantly evolve through generations without loss of information in the individuals' RNA. Nina was 99% sure that this condition was inherited by Orochi among other things, and that it was at the peak of its strength within the boy.

 _'...He gets stronger every time he fights. His entire body learns, not only brain and muscles. It finally makes sense! I thought it was part of the Gate's abilities at first but it's really just a genetic condition. All his talk about "experience" suddenly doesn't look so farfetched if it allows him to go this far..."_ She still remembered Raynare's reaction as she showed her the data that was sent by Ajuka.

With what had happened the night before, she had to reveal Orochi's roots to the Satan despite him pleading to her to not do that, since it couldn't be helped. Fortunately the Satan decided that it was unfair to judge the boy harshly, given his personal situation, which Nina made absolutely sure to describe properly so that her boss could understand. As such, he decided to pretend to not know anything, and allowed for Nina's observation to continue undisturbed.

She would even have apologized for it if Orochi had remembered anything about it.

At any rate, the point of the matter was that Orochi Kamakura, the "container" of the Abnormality **Heaven's Gate,** was able to reshape himself at will if he wanted to. Or at least that was what Nina had speculated.

Heaven's Gate may have been invisible to the human eye, but it still occupied space. It couldn't be touched, but it could still be moved if what Orochi said to her was true (this little fact was unknown to Ajuka who, sure enough, jumped around in excitement in his office for half a minute before regaining composure when she told him). A container that was deformed in any way was surely going to deform its contents as well, assuming they were malleable enough, which meant that Heaven's Gate would either evolve alongside Orochi's body at its same rate, or Invert at a moment's notice. That was going to be the main focus for his three-days training: learning how to control that Abnormality and to tap into that power without Inverting.

And as Raynare and the Devil duo charged Orochi at the same time, the boy went ahead and demonstrated that he had already found a way to use the Gate.

 **"Abprall."**

* * *

 **(1): "Phantom" in German. This move will be explained properly in a few chapters, during the RG. Same goes for Abprall.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **It's immediately obvious that I didn't provide a translation for Abprall. It's intentional, since I plan to explain this particular technique much further down the arc, right after the RG probably. Just know that even in this primitive form, it is disgustingly powerful, and you probably won't see it that often after Arc 2. You can go ahead and translate the word on your own, and after that you can try guessing what it does, right? I would love to hear your thoughts in your reviews, readers.**

 **The Adamantite Armor (I keep writing Adamantine and having to fix it, it never stops please help XD) is original. It's fairly generic because come on, not everything should be unique. Not even Twilight Healing is unique. Rare? Sure, but not unique. Just a little something I found out reading the wiki for Arc 1, something I swear I don't remember reading in the LN.**

 **The Fragments are also a little something I cooked up to make Raynare stand out from normal Fallen Angels. They're pretty much unstable segments of a light spear, in which a more pure form of light can be easily concentrated due to their small size. I wonder what would happen if those little things were to overload... u.u**

 **Finally, a little more is revealed about why Orochi is so ridiculous. As I mentioned before, Soichiro is inspired from Rugal Bernstein of KOF, along with the concept of "knowledge collection". Of course, Rugal is not much of a scholar, so you can think of this as a little expansion of mine on this concept. Hopefully it works well in the future.**

 **That's all for today. Reviews are welcome as usual. Next time, a little time skip and the battle begins.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	14. Arc 2 Chapter 9

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to a Path to Freedom.**

 **Damn, the time between chapters just can't go lower than 8 days huh? Laziness does that to you.**

 **Anyway. Today, we have a build-up chapter, because the Rating Game starts in the next one and I needed an intermission of sorts for linearity's sake.**

 **What's that? Did you just tell me that I said the RG would start in this chapter _last time?_...You're right, mr. Reader, and it DOES technically start in this chapter, but it's only a minuscule fragment of the Game that you all will be allowed to witness this time. AND, the Game lasts for pretty much the rest of the arc aside from the Epilogue so there's that. There are also a few explanations and line cuts along the way to the end of the arc, and they occupy space, yes? So yeah, I can tell you guys that Epilogue aside, there are 4 more chapters after this that will cover the RG. In other words, we should be done by the end of June I think.**

 **But that's enough. Can't be wasting time with a steaming pile of excuses every time, haha!**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 9 - Battle Preparations

Three days had passed. The date of the match against Riser had arrived incredibly quickly.

"So, are you nervous for the Rating Game, Orochi-kun?"

"Eh, a little bit. But I should be the one asking you that question, you know?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Suppose I am defeated. Putting my pride aside for the sake of this hypothesis, I lose absolutely nothing if that Phenex guy ends up winning. I'll just be pissed off at myself and that will be it. But if that guy wins, then Anya has to marry him. So, what will become of you?"

"...Oh, that. No idea actually. But I don't intend to abandon Anya-sama's side, so I guess you should just assume the worst."

"You know very well how dark my assumptions can get. Guess I'll just have to put good effort into this game then."

In the few days of training that Orochi had allowed himself in order to prepare for the match, he and Unryuu had the chance to make peace with each other. As it turned out, Orochi had admitted that he wasn't that angry to begin with and had conceded that for his "safety" Unryuu's Devil nature had to be hidden. So, after beating each other up in the last day of his training session, they had gone back to a normal friendly relationship just in time for the Rating Game. Proof of that were the band-aids that Unryuu had on her face, and the fact that he started talking properly to her again.

There was also the fact that Orochi was actually showing concern for the girl, which made her strangely happy for some reason, despite the fact that she was still feeling the pain from his blows. It hadn't taken long for Orochi to find a way to power through her Adamantite Armor the day before. He had used a technique that could turn a mountain to rubble according to him, and sure enough, her defense had crumbled fast against it.

"What about you, Raynare?"

"It doesn't look like it but I'm a nervous wreck."

"Why? I trained you."

"Fat lot of good that will do me if our opponents end up being too strong, you fool. Neither of us know anything about them."

"She has a point. Even I don't know much and the same goes for Anya-sama. Well, Riser himself aside." intervened Unryuu.

"Well yeah, but I think we have a decent margin of error considering what I wanted out of you these few days, Raynare. And hey, you _managed to deliver,_ so I'm not that worried for you. You have to face a single person anyway, while I have to deal with the other 15 at worst so I don't think you have any right to complain." answered Orochi.

"Anyone who trains with you has plenty of reasons to complain, Orochi-kun."

"Anyone who trains with you has plenty of reasons to complain, Kamakura."

The almost equal responses of the two girls echoed in the street as the trio walked towards Kuoh for school. A Rating Game was not an excuse to skip classes, sadly.

"I didn't work you THAT hard."

"..." "..."

"...Did I?"

"YOU SURE DID!" quipped Unryuu.

"YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYA COMPLAINING!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE SHE LOST CONSCIOUSNESS BEFORE SHE COULD DO SO YESTERDAY! I STILL HAVE TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT!"

"THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM! WANT A SHARE FOR YOURSELF?"

He was punched in the face. It didn't hurt, but the fist had enough strength to dig into his skin.

It was actually Raynare's. It seemed that her training did in fact pay off if her blow managed to have any effect at all on the boy.

"Calm down, will you? Unbelievable, I can't help but wonder how much time and effort you two would waste on these stupid squabbles if I wasn't around!"

"MIND YOUR DAMN BUSINESS-"

"MIND YOUR DAMN BUSINESS-"

"My, everyone is quite lively today. I wonder if I should be glad or worried."

They had reached the gates of Kuoh Academy before they realized it. Anya and Asia had been waiting for them: the pure-blooded Devil seemed to be slightly on edge, her smile a forced one, probably out of exasperation for Orochi's antics.

Or the prospect of having to marry that flaming oaf. Really, it could have been both in the boy's opinion.

He was the first to recover, and answered with a smirk on his face.

"Hah, it simply means that I'm in good shape today, despite Nishijima being violent early in the morning."

"..."

"...I'm not apologizing, Anya-sama." deadpanned Unryuu.

"I'm not expecting you to, don't worry."

"Hey Raynare, why does it feel like I'm in the wrong?"

"Because you probably are, idiot. Let's just go and deal with the damn classes or I'll probably bust a vein."

"P-please don't fight, everyone..." was the single meek sentence of a former nun.

Five abnormal people then walked through the gates, and entered their classrooms for the day.

* * *

Occult Research Club.

Orochi, Raynare and Anya and her peerage were waiting quietly for Ajuka to summon them.

Apparently the battlefield for the Rating Game was a crafted micro-dimension made solely for the sake of the match, so the two designated fighters didn't have to worry about potentially thrashing the place, whatever it was going to be, and making someone mad.

Suddenly a magic circle appeared on the carpet, and immediately both the human and the Fallen bolted up from their seats on the sofas. It seemed that, all jokes aside, both of them were on edge because of the Game.

Several people appeared in the room, and among them were Riser and Ajuka. The two pure-blooded Devils aside, the group was all girls of different sizes and dress styles.

"Here I am, human. I hope for your own good that you didn't waste your precious three days cowering in the corner of your room."

Immediately Riser started with the provocations. Apparently the people behind him were part of her peerage, and they were all girls for some reason.

Orochi, who was not the kind of man to be intimidated by that much, instantly responded.

"Funny. That's exactly what I expect you'll be doing once I'm done with you today. Well, that _and_ sending some of your teammates to therapy sessions: they'll probably need those after this."

He concluded with an animalistic grin, which made some of the girls who didn't know him shudder.

"Hoho, I see that you are both heated up, no pun intended." Ajuka started to speak, probably to prevent the phoenix and the monster from fighting before their time. "As you probably know, I have crafted a battlefield for the sake of this match. I have to warn you gentlemen, it will favour Orochi-kun's side since they are at a disadvantage."

"Oi-" Orochi did NOT agree with that statement, but before he could complain, Raynare stomped on his foot.

"Whine after we win." she whispered with gritted teeth.

'...Tch, she has a point. It would be unsightly to complain now.' Orochi had that thought and decided to not speak any further.

"Something wrong?"

"...No, don't mind me. Please continue."

Ajuka was seemingly satisfied by his answer, and started speaking again.

"I see. Then I shall explain the rules."

He put out a hand from behind his back and raised a finger. "One: this is, for all intents and purposes, a Rating Game. So common rules such as "destroying your own base to prevent Promotion is forbidden" and "every team is allowed half an hour to prepare a strategy before the start of the game" still apply."

A second finger was raised. "Two: as agreed, Raynare-kun and Yubelluna-kun shall fight each other one-on-one. The two teams are not allowed to interfere in their fight in any way, and the two young ladies in question will not be allowed to engage in battle anyone that isn't their decided opponent."

A third finger. "Three: the winner of their fight will be allowed to participate in the actual battle. In other words, once their fight is over, whoever still stands can go give support to her team if there is a need for it."

A fourth finger. "Four: this is a friendly match, so nobody among the participants will be allowed to kill an opponent. Sometimes the judge will let it slide and count an eventual death as an "accident" if we were talking about an official ranking match, but that isn't the case here so take care not to... let's say "overstep", otherwise I, the judge for this match, will personally punish the transgressor."

The last finger. "Finally, five: the win condition will be "to take out the opposing leader". It may seem obvious, but it needs to be reiterated for this particular Rating Game that is somewhat of an exception to what Riser-kun may be used to, since one of the leaders isn't a Devil."

"...Did I hear that right? Are you "used to it", Phenex?" asked Orochi.

"That's right, human. I am somewhat of a veteran in regards to Rating Games. Though I am no match for the top ranks, I'm sure that we will give you a hard time if you're not careful."

Raynare seemed shaken by that statement, but she snapped out of it when Orochi suddenly looked at her straight in the eyes. For a moment she thought he was going to reassure her.

"Hear that, Raynare? They say they're competent so it won't be a farce of a battle after all."

She realized quickly that she shouldn't entertain such thoughts when it came to Orochi.

'...Indeed, I will have to calm myself on my own, since this guy is probably going to mind his own business once the fight starts.'

"Well then, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to start the Rating Game. I shall transport everyone to where they have to be."

"Wait, Beelzebub-sama, what do you mean by-"

Anya's question was drowned by the light of Ajuka's immense transportation circle.

* * *

Orochi opened his eyes, his mind in a slight daze from the warp.

...For some reason, he and Raynare were still in the ORC clubroom.

"...Um, did the warp circle fail or something?" Orochi expressed his doubts, which were silently shared by Raynare who was just as confused.

 **"Haha, no, not at all. This is the battlefield."**

"!"

Orochi heard Ajuka's voice echoing through the room. He then ran to the window. Looking outside, he noticed that there simply seemed to be _nothing_ past the trees that were surrounding the academy. It was as if a huge cube of earth had been dug out of the ground and transported elsewhere, and sure enough, they were in Kuoh Academy.

"What the hell, Ajuka?! Is this really Kuoh?"

 **"Not quite, Orochi-kun. As I said before, this battlefield is something that I have personally created to grant you and Raynare-kun an advantage."**

"So this is what he meant. This actually makes me feel better, to be fair." said Raynare, who had released a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"...So, half an hour, huh?" asked Orochi, eager to get back on topic and avoid wasting more time.

 **"That is correct. Both you and Riser-kun have 30 minutes to form a strategy and take your preferred positions in the battlefield. Of course, you will not be allowed to cross the mid-way line before the start of the match, I shall personally make sure of it."**

 **"Riser Phenex, Orochi Kamakura. You have 30 minutes, starting now."**

His voice vanished in the ether after saying that last sentence for both parties.

"...Well, I guess it's time to think of how to avoid a crushing defeat, huh?" asked Raynare, who seemed already tired out just by hearing the Satan speak.

"No trust in me at all, I see." Orochi actually felt slightly disappointed at that, despite his joking tone. "I'd rather think of how to _deliver_ that crushing defeat if it's all the same to you."

"Can we really do it?"

"If it's you _now,_ we can."

Raynare was left confused at that statement. She wasn't supposed to engage in battle anyone but Yubelluna, right?

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I've found an exploit. You'll be able to help me out a little bit if you do it in a certain way."

He smiled at her.

"I have a plan."

* * *

"Will we really have no trouble with this, Riser-sama?"

Yubelluna, Riser's Queen piece and Raynare's opponent, made that inquiry to her master as the 30 minutes allowed by Ajuka were about to run out.

"The guy is probably decently strong, which is why he didn't even flinch back then, when I said that I had a full peerage. That is the reason why we first need to find out what he's capable of. He may be a human, but I'm not taking chances considering what is at stake here."

Riser's strategy was for the time being to simply engage the human with a single group. Three of his Pawns and one of his Rooks were stationed in the gym, which was more or less between the new building and the old one, the latter of which was Riser's base. The objective was to gather information about the human's capabilities by putting in his way a group of opponents that he wouldn't avoid, assuming he'd decide to travel in a straight line towards his true opponent. Following that, that information would be shared via a specific magic circle, crafted by one of his Bishops and imprinted on one of the designed opponents for the human, to every other Devil in his team, and Riser would then go from there in crafting a proper strategy accordingly.

"At any rate, this time around it isn't really any of your business as long as the Fallen girl is on the field, yes? You can state your worries to me after you've defeated her, but for now just think about what you have to do."

"...Very well. In that case I shall be off, Riser-sama."

Yubelluna said that, and flied out of the window.

She and the Fallen didn't exactly have a specified place where they could meet and fight, so they would have to pretty much look for each other, and start the battle without sneak attacks, because the Satan-sama had said to her that it wouldn't be fair in this particular situation.

Riser, meanwhile, glanced at the clock on the wall of the classroom he was in. "...It's almost time."

* * *

Anya, Unryuu and Asia were currently in a VIP room. With them were Nina, the restless Agnes, Riser's parents and also his older brother Ruval.

 _"Oooh, Bruder and Schwester are going to fight! Stop making me wait and start alreadyyyy!"_ Agnes was agitating her tiny closed fists like a boxer, not necessarily a human one, would in an American cartoon for children, and jumped continuously up and down on her mother's lap.

Soon after the training's start, the little girl had found out that Yuuma Amano was actually a Fallen Angel, but didn't bother to remember her actual name because it was too hard for her, and kept calling her Sister, to the young woman's dismay.

" _Settle down, Agnes. A few seconds and it will start._ Sorry about the kid, Phenex-sama, but it was impossible for me to leave her to someone else today."

"It can't be helped, I suppose." Lord Phenex spoke in a gruff voice. "Although I imagine it would be a bit of a shock if the people she's cheering for end up losing."

"H-Haha, well, she is _this_ pumped exactly because Orochi-kun promised her that "the show will be spectacular no matter who wins!" or something like that."

"Well, my brother is fairly strong, in his own right that is." said Ruval. "If only he was more serious about having a competitive peerage. Mind you, the current one isn't that bad, but he definitely could have done better. Time to see if this fact will bite him in the rear today."

"How odd that Ruval-dono isn't exactly cheering for his own brother in this occasion." said Anya. Ruval was actually a decent person, as it turned out, so she didn't have nearly as many problems talking to him when compared to Riser.

"He needs to be taught a lesson, that is a fact I'm afraid. And the problem is that I am the wrong person to teach him said lesson. If he ends up losing to a human, maybe he will sober up."

"How harsh of you, Ruval." Lady Phenex seemed to be reprimanding her eldest son. "Although I agree with what you just said, you display bad manners by badmouthing your brother in public."

"I'm baffled at how you didn't even try to defend him, Mother, but I apologize. ...Oh, it's about to start!"

"Hopefully even little Ravel will shine this time!"

"...I doubt it." whispered Ruval to Anya. It wasn't like Ruval had little faith in her sister or anything like that. It was simply a matter of her not being interested at all in this battle, and the reason she was even there in the battlefield that looked like a school to begin with was merely to raise the numbers.

Unryuu and Asia meanwhile, silent the entire time, were completely focused on Orochi's side of the field as they watched the feed of multiple screens that were set up for the occupants of that room. They seemed eager to find out what his first move would be, since it appeared that he didn't even leave his base yet. In a sense, they were just as nervous as little Agnes was.

Ajuka's voice thundered suddenly over the fake school.

 **"The 30 minutes conceded to you gentlemen for strategy are over. As such...**

 **the Rating Game between Riser Phenex and Orochi Kamakura may now begin!"**

Not even five seconds later, a silhouette could be seen leaping from the window of the ORC, rapidly gaining height as it approached the gym building.

A moment later, the silhouette started diving at full speed, and _crashed into the building, making it crumble immediately._

The battle had started. And Orochi had already taken control.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **This chapter should be decent enough for the purpose I needed it to fulfill. A bit of a preamble to what is about to come, and a good and healthy dose of pure chaos to build up hype for the next chapter!**

 **There is nothing else to say this time. I planned everything carefully from this point on, and as such I might have little to say in the next few uploads as well.**

 **For those who are wondering, I have yet to pick back up Arc 3. Yeah, still stuck. I might be able to move forward again if I manage to sit down in front of the PC for a whole afternoon, but that requires time that I currently don't have. We'll see how that situation evolves I suppose.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	15. Arc 2 Chapter 10

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been a fast week (8 days again actually) for me. Time has gone by very quickly this time around :| . Sadly, it will slow down to a crawl for this weekend due to... unpleasant stuff I have to do.**

 **Anyway, we have a chapter on our hands. Since I'm uncreative, I'm starting to struggle with titles haha. As for content, here's where we'll get to the first example of "battle and explanation", something that DxD does a lot, but fits well with the story I feel. Hopefully I'll be able to handle it decently enough.**

 **Timewise, this chapter doesn't cover much. As in, we'll see very little after the "body drop" so to speak. It should be picking up a little bit eventually, but this is what we have today.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 10 - The Plan (Part 1)

"So, I can easily reach the mid-way in a single leap if I have a running start and jump from the window, yeah?"

"That would be where the gym is, more or less. What about it?"

"I'll destroy the building."

"...Why?"

"Allow me to explain."

A few minutes before the start of the match, Orochi had declared that he had a plan to take control of the battle as early as possible, and had explained to Raynare what he intended to do and what he wanted _her_ to do.

"Riser claims to be an expert of Rating Games. This competence however makes him predictable. I'm sure he has already assumed that I'm a total hothead, and that I will make a beeline for his base, which in fact is exactly what I intend to do."

"Obviously. I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Hothead-san."

Orochi was slightly irked by that comment. "...At any rate, I intend to jump from the window and dive head-first into a building that will definitely hide people within. And it just so happens to be in the path to Riser Phenex's base."

"Ah, I see. You're predicting him to throw people at you in a place that you won't be avoiding in your path to the base, or in other words, Phenex is most likely attempting to gather info on your power, which is something that you won't allow."

"Exactly. If the building fails to eliminate someone as it crumbles I'll go ahead and "clean up". I need you to wait here for about two minutes after the gym falls, in case I need the time to force some dropouts, and after that I'd like you to clear a path for me."

Raynare didn't even bat an eye as Orochi explained his crazy, unorthodox plan. She was so used to his bullshit that it didn't affect her anymore.

"Huh, I guess I _am_ allowed to do that. But how?"

"Can your Fragments reach the trees that are in the way between the gym and the new building, if you fire them from the roof of this one?"

"!"

Raynare understood right there what Orochi wanted her to do. She was in fact capable of such a feat, now that she had some semblance of control over the unstable **Fragments** that she could create out of pieces of her light spear. He wanted her to launch Fragments in a straight line in the woods between the new building and the gym, and carve a direct path to the opponent's base by _detonating them._

"...Alright, I'll handle it. But only if you promise to treat me to yakiniku."

"Yeah yeah sure- wait, what?"

"Yakiniku. Treat me to some and I'll do it. And if you can't promise me that, I'll just go mind my own business and beat that Yubelluna bitch."

"I don't understand that request but... Fine, I promise."

Whether Raynare helped him out or not wasn't really a matter of necessity in Orochi's eyes, but rather of convenience. She had nothing better to do until Yubelluna showed up, so it would have been wise to use her power to make the Rating Game last as little as possible. The more it lasted, the more he would have to bully the opposing team, and they only had the one fault of being a little too gullible if the general gender there was anything to go by.

He supposed he could sacrifice a bit of money to make sure Raynare would comply.

...Such an odd request, though.

"I only have one question then. Did you forget that I'm not allowed to engage anyone but Yubelluna?"

"Why, you're not engaging anyone by doing that. If someone gets caught in the blast it will be their fault. _You were just opening a path for me._ "

"! I see! If someone gets hit by the explosions it will be treated as collateral, since the purpose of that particular maneuver is not "to eliminate an opponent". Not bad at all, so that's what you meant when you said you found an exploit."

"And that's not the only exploit I have in mind. After all that, I will make use of the fact that we can't do that Promotion thing."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it, at that point you just need to watch until Queen-san shows her face to you. And it seems that our time has almost run out so go to the roof already! Shoo!"

"Don't you shoo me! I'm going! STOP PUSHING ME!"

* * *

"W-What the hell?"

Anya couldn't help exclaiming that.

"...Unryuu-san, d-did Orochi-san just _headbutt a building?!_ "

"...I'm not sure, Asia-chan. Mostly because I don't believe what I just saw."

 _"Woooooooaah, that was so cool, Bruder! Destroy more, destroooooyyyy!"_

"Aaah, I knew it, he's a bad influenceeeeeeee!" whined Nina.

Ruval was the only one to remain silent as the gym crumbled, pondering to himself.

'...Incredible. Such a strategy is incredible. It isn't something that I've never seen, but to think that a human of all people could decide to do something so reckless...'

"A-Anya-san, are you absolutely sure that that man is a human?" It seemed that similar thoughts to Ruval's were shared by Lord Phenex.

Anya noticed her own outburst and composed herself. She turned to the man beside her and smiled lightly.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I confirmed it."

* * *

 **"Three of Riser Phenex's Pawns have retired."**

Ajuka's voice announced the instantaneous defeat of three out of 15 people (not counting Yubelluna).

Riser was fuming as he looked at the now-turned-to-rubble building from the window of the classroom he was standing in.

'HOW? How can a simple human come up with something like this?'

He had been immediately outplayed. He had planned to send that group to engage the human first and gather information on his abilities before deciding what to do, but they were immediately taken out.

'...Wait! Beelzebub-sama said only "three Pawns"! Xuelan is still there!'

Sure enough, the Rook in question, despite being buried by the rubble, was still conscious. The same couldn't be said for her companions, who had passed out shortly after _some sort of meteor hit the building._

"Gh! W-What the hell was that?!"

She lifted the piece of roof that covered her person and threw it to the side. And as she looked around, the first thing she noticed was a white haired man with his hands in his pockets, who had given his attention to the nekomata twins in front of him.

Ni and Li had noticed the ruckus as they were hiding in ambush in the woods, and after listening to the announcement and noticing Xuelan hadn't retired yet, they had run over to the collapsed building. They had identified the perpetrator and were getting ready to take him on when Xuelan emerged from the rubble.

"Ah, Xuelan-san, are you alright-nya?

"Please stay back, we will engage this horrible man-nya!"

'...They're right. My job in this battle is to gather information on this bastard. If I am defeated too early, Riser-sama will be in trouble!'

"I think I know what you're thinking, Qi Pao-san." (1)

The human turned to face the Rook.

"There's a fair bit of distance between me and you, but it would be ludicrous for you to think that you're safe from me." declared Orochi.

"!"

He vanished.

 **"Gespenst."**

 ***BAM***

And a heel suddenly dug into Xuelan's side, launching her _quite far away._

"Sorry, but I'd like to keep my privacy."

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Rooks has retired."**

After the announcement was made, Orochi lowered his leg, straightened his uniform jacket and turned to the twins, who were still astonished by the sudden elimination of their companion.

"It has already been one minute. You have thirty seconds to decide who fights me first, I'm on a tight schedule right now."

Ni and Li sobered up from their stunned state, looked at each other, and a moment later they both charged Orochi.

"HAH, CAN'T SAY I DISAGREE WITH THAT CHOICE!"

* * *

"...It's that technique again. The one that caught me completely off guard. Come to think of it, didn't you say that you had figured it out, Anya-sama?" inquired Unryuu.

"Ah, yes, or at the very least I was able to identify its purpose." explained Anya. "I don't exactly know how he achieves that level of speed when he performs it, but what he essentially does is _hide from his opponent's line of sight._ He doesn't become invisible or teleport or anything silly like that: rather, he moves at incredible speed into a blind spot in his opponent's vision before striking. The name Gespenst is quite fitting, I find. And without my Wisdom, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out at all."

"But how does he find out where that blind spot is? Surely it can't be the same every time for different people."

"W-Well, that's... less clear to me."

"I can tell you that." said Nina, looking at the two Devils. "It's merely what happens when one has full control of their body. He explained that maneuver to me the other day: he switches off all the unnecessary functions in his brain and concentrates the impulses in his nervous system into his leg muscles for a brief moment. You could say that, for a split second, he can force himself into a trance and dedicate all his physical strength to leg movement. Before all that however, he also gathers information about his opponent's line of vision just by looking at the shape of their eyes, so once he finds a blind spot he goes into a trance, moves using Gespenst, switches back on the functions that were turned off, and finally makes his move."

She turned her attention back to the screens. "A terrifying technique for sure, but it's not invincible. There is an obvious blind spot at the back of the neck, but that one is common to every humanoid, and as such completely worthless to Orochi-kun who doesn't want his movements to be read easily. And certain opponents might not have a blind spot in their vision at all. While this wouldn't exactly obstruct the technique itself, his approach would be seen despite his speed since he wouldn't be able to hide from his opponent. Orochi-kun himself stated that it is unreliable, and that he plans to find something else to use as "movement tech" as he called it in the near future."

"I feel like you've said something incredible just now, Nina-san." said Anya, suddenly suspicious. "Everything you said makes sense, although I didn't know about the "full control over the body" part. Is that simply a thing that Orochi-kun can do? Do I have to accept it as such?"

"For now, yes. There are... circumstances, which prevent me from telling you any more than this about that kid. Circumstances that have forced him to tell me and Raynare-san all kinds of interesting things about him. They are however extremely personal, which is why you'll have to be satisfied with just what I tell you for the time being."

"I... see."

Unryuu's mood dropped under her shoes hearing that. Did he have his own share of secrets after all? What could they be? It certainly wasn't a matter of hiding his own nature like she did, since he had never bothered to hide his power. Why was it imperative that nobody knew about what hid behind the monster of a human that was Kamakura Orochi?

She knew she shouldn't have expected anything. She knew how Orochi tended to behave: he would never, _ever_ open up to her, or to anyone else for that matter, if he could help it.

She knew, she knew, she knew.

Then... why did it hurt to hear that he confided in someone that wasn't her?

* * *

 **(1): It's the name of Xuelan's dress for those who didn't know: typically Chinese, so you might not know its name unless you read the LN. Then again, it's been ages since I've watched Season 1 so I don't remember if someone said its name at some point.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **My decision, as you've seen, ended up being "use everyone in the gym as fodder". I mentioned before that I was unsure of how to handle all these people and this is the solution I came up with. Hope you people are not fans of those four girls or something, hahaha.**

 **Orochi has reached a level where he can take out an unprepared Rook in a single blow. Not bad, right? Unless one braces for impact, it will be fairly hard to defend against his blows: I intend to keep this little detail a constant of sorts throughout the story, if I can manage it. Raynare has also progressed well, and in a very short time at that. I have yet to define a proper direction for her own background past a certain point, but as usual I'll give it my all. Once I've gotten unstuck in Arc 3, I mean. XD**

 **Finally, I've addressed Orochi's obvious trust issues with that last scene. What he said that night, he said for convenience's sake as you know, so that he wouldn't be bothered as much as he would be if he did otherwise. As such, someone like Unryuu, who is completely unrelated to his past, and is part of a supernatural side that doesn't need to know more than necessary (since the Devils are well aware of the White Serpent's deeds), is not worthy of that much trust yet. It almost seemed to become a moot point after Nina went and reported to Ajuka, am I right? Well, I'm not done with that concept yet so I slapped it right back in, aha!**

 **For now we're done. Next time, an actually impressive display of strength.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	16. Arc 2 Chapter 11

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I've got a few things to say before we get going so please bear with me.**

 **First of all, I FINALLY picked Arc 3 back up just yesterday. Now that I started writing again, I'm really looking forward to the following Arcs, which are, if I didn't already say so, completely original! This piece of news was for those of you guys who are interested in how development is going, so to speak.**

 **Now the piece of news that concerns me specifically, and those who care about such matters, I suppose. You might have noticed the sudden increase in reviews. You also might have noticed they're all from the same person, all 10 of them. If you've seen the contents of said reviews, you might be able to understand why I need to address this.**

 **For those who _didn't_ read them, I'll tell you immediately that I wasn't insulted in any way, shape or form. That isn't the problem.**

 **The problem is the content.**

 **Right from the start, I delivered several warnings, such as my English not being perfect and stuff like that. In particular, I made sure to convey that I wasn't experienced at all in writing stories like this, seeing that this was my very first time.**

 **As such, criticism is expected, both positive and negative. Hell, I honestly expected to get negative criticism a lot earlier than this. I don't mind receiving it at all, in fact I welcome it because it might help me improve my writing as time goes on.**

 **The problem lies within the fact that my story, my content, has been called "boring" and "predictable", and no valid reason for it has been given to me by the person that wrote those reviews.**

 **My story is boring? Fair enough. I'm nowhere near good enough to entertain every single one of my readers with something that strays, somewhat, from the original story. But exactly _what_ is boring? Exactly _what_ is predictable? Mr. Reviewer, you seem to have forgotten to tell me that little detail. How am I expected to improve my fic if I am not told these things?**

 **From my point of view (and I hate to say this), this isn't any different than trying to argue with a child throwing a tantrum. I've read a few of the reviews you receive for your own stories and, from what little I saw, it looked like whoever had something to say about your fics has explained exactly what they thought you could have improved upon. I only ask that those who find my story unsatisfactory try to do the same for me. That's what makes the criticism _constructive_. That's what any newbie would like to receive when they start writing. Being shot down for no reason will not help at all.**

 **...Sorry about that. As we say in Italy, I felt I had to "get the pebble out of my shoe".**

 **Anyway, the story. A bunch of line breaks here, and I needed all of them this time. My apologies. Either way, the story should, in theory, pick up from here.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 11 - The Plan (Part 2)

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

A brawl had exploded between the twin nekomatas Ni and Li and Orochi. He found out quickly, in their exchange of punches and kicks, that the two girls in front of him weren't total pushovers despite being Pawns. For some reason their blows had effect on him despite Heaven's Gate's power, and his physical condition was worsening by the second. Unbeknownst to him, their limbs were currently infused with Ki, or _life energy,_ a form of energy that every object and person possessed in varying quantities: what they were trying to do was to disrupt the flow of life energy in their opponent, which would damage his soul severely. And sure enough, Orochi had been fighting with gritted teeth from the pain for several seconds in a row against the two of them.

'I'll run out of time soon! I have to finish this!'

"HA!" As he thought that, he pushed back the twins that had pinned him in one spot for a short while as he fought.

One of his legs briefly gave out, leaving him kneeled on the soft grass. Their fight had moved them to the woods separating the gym from the new building of the fake Kuoh, where Riser currently had his base. Orochi absolutely had to finish his clean-up before two minutes passed, or Raynare would start carpet-bombing the area with her Fragments and potentially harm him if he didn't get out of the way.

"Although we don't know you that well, we can tell your soul is full of malice-nya!"

"Our Senjutsu is particularly effective against people like you-nya! You don't have a chance-nya!"

"..."

He rose to his feet. The twins were currently pincering him, one of them on either of his sides.

"Senjutsu, huh? Looks like I can still learn something despite the difference in strength."

"?" "?"

"At any rate, I'd better end this. I planned to use this a little later in the battle, but I'm running out of time. This technique really, _really_ shouldn't be used on people, but it can't be helped."

He pulled back his right arm and faced Ni, the blue-haired twin.

Suddenly, all the muscles in his right arm bulged, and some sparks of lightning started circling around the arm.

"You can start holding your breath, Riser Phenex! This technique's next target will be you, so prepare yourself!"

It seemed that he was preparing to punch the empty space between him and the blue-haired nekomata.

"Get blown away! **Bergschneider**!" (1)

He threw his right fist towards Ni's general direction.

 _And every tree in that direction was crushed by the sheer power generated._

* * *

"Oh, I recognize that one! You have been its first target, haven't you, Unryuu-san?" inquired Nina, her voice full of mirth.

"Please don't remind me. Everything below my diaphragm still hurts and it's been two days already."

"S-Such power! What kind of move is that?!" Lord Phenex exclaimed in amazement.

"That move is simpler than it looks, Phenex-sama." explained Unryuu, holding her stomach with one of her hands. "Orochi-kun's muscles start working together to accumulate pressure in a single arm, which is then released when he throws a fist. Easy to understand, and yet incredibly powerful. I'm aware of the fact that his muscles behave in a certain way due to the fact that he whined to me in the past about how unfair it was that he couldn't do sports on par with everyone else. ...I've been a target of it too during our sparring sessions, and it pierced through my Armor easily."

"Eeeeeh, so you knew about it and didn't tell me, Unryuuuuuuuu?"

"W-Wait Anya-sama, you're hugging me too tightly, my sides hurt, they actually hurt, Anya-samaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Anyway, Phenex-sama." Nina picked the explanation back up. "According to Orochi-kun, that move can turn a mountain to rubble with enough pressure gathered. And it is most likely that a person hit by a fist like that directly would quite literally _burst._ Hence the reason why he uses it from a distance, allowing air resistance to lower the strength of that move to the extent where the unfortunate target will simply be blown away instead of being smashed to pieces."

"W-What a brutal man..."

"You haven't seen him at his worst like I did, Phenex-sama. Please don't jump to conclusions, "brutal" doesn't cut it with Orochi-kun."

* * *

The aftermath of the Bergschneider was devastating.

Several trees had been crushed by the pressure and were now on the ground, their foliage laying in Orochi's direction, their roots right where they were. It was as if they were kneeling in adoration.

The pressure had hit the low side on their trunks, since the target was standing on the ground herself. Like knocking a plastic bottle down by hitting its low side, they all fell in his direction.

Ni was nowhere to be found. And sure enough...

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Pawns has retired."**

Orochi then relaxed his stance and released a breath. He then half-turned to the remaining twin, who was on her knees, trembling in fear.

"...I suggest you start running."

"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And run she did. She got up and vanished in the woods so fast that one would think _she_ was the one hit by the Bergschneider.

"Tch, she ran into the woods. Hopefully the Fragments won't amputate one of those legs or something."

Deciding that it was time for him to leave the woods as well, he also started running back to where he was. He was barely able to reach the crumbled gym in time with the few seconds he had.

"...Two minutes. Your move, Raynare." muttered the boy.

A few seconds later, a yellow line appeared in the sky, following the straight path between the gym and the new building.

It split immediately into small segments, which started raining above the woods in front of Orochi.

And after about five seconds...

 ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM***

Everything in front of him exploded.

"Heh, just as planned."

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Pawns has retired."**

"...Aw, she was caught in the blast. Too bad." He didn't sound regretful at all as he said that.

He moved a few steps forward. A lot of dust had been lifted by Raynare's attack, but a clear path to the new building had been created.

"I can't see shit, but it doesn't matter. I know where the building is."

He looked at his hands for a second before settling his gaze on the left one.

"I should probably use this one now. It wouldn't be wise to risk straining myself by repeating the technique with the same arm."

Orochi pulled back a fist once again and faced the new building.

"...Heh, what's with that "Promotion"? Whatever it is, my side can't do it, so I might as well use your base as a means to draw you out!"

His left arm's muscles bulged, and once again small sparks of lightning were formed around it. This time however, a strange _white aura_ was also gathered around the limb.

He couldn't destroy his own base, because it would prevent whatever that "Promotion" thing was for Riser's team. On the other hand, that didn't mean he couldn't destroy his opponent's base, since he'd lose nothing if he did. That was the second exploit that Orochi had found for this battle, and it would help him shorten the fight significantly.

"Once more, with love! **Bergschneider!** "

His target this time was Riser's base in the distance, and nothing else.

 _The building bursted._

* * *

"Oh?"

Ajuka had just finished announcing the Pawn Ni's retreat when he noticed Raynare on top of the old building of the fake Kuoh.

She was preparing a light spear. For some reason, _it looked unstable._

"Hmm, is this the direction you wanted her to take, Orochi-kun? Just what are you planning, young man?"

He then managed to distinguish the slight gaps in that spear. It wasn't quite a spear anymore, but rather a bunch of segments of pure light in a straight line. Yet, they were just as unstable.

"Hohoho, could it be that she has found a way to control unstable light energy? And... what's this?"

She launched the segmented lance of light straight in front of her, past the gym that had crumbled and towards the woods. They landed in an orderly row between the rubble and the new building.

Then they detonated.

"...There could have been people in there. Should I punish this? ...What?"

He noticed that the system had pulled out of the battlefield one of Riser's Pawns a moment after the explosions.

"I definitely have to punish this. I thought I had been clear about it, Orochi-kun. ...!"

But he noticed something else immediately after. The detonations had carved a clean path to the new building.

"O-Oh... H-He... He found a loophole..."

Ajuka understood immediately. Orochi in that moment had made use of the fact that the special rules of this Rating Game didn't prevent Raynare from causing collateral damage as she helped the boy out before her fight started. She didn't interfere in any battle since the other twin had run away, and the purpose of that light rain was to merely open a path. Whether there were people in there or not, Raynare was obviously unable to tell: she would have probably blasted Orochi as well if he didn't get out of the woods.

It was all collateral, which meant that they didn't directly break any rule.

He was given too much leeway, and this was the result.

"...Hmph, I see how it is. You did all this just to get back at me for favoring your side, huh?"

He didn't even notice that he had stood up from his seat. He sat back down sighing.

"Good grief, he's truly an evil genius, a worthy member of the Goenitz household. You could give Rizevim a run for his money, my boy."

He spoke into a magic circle.

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Pawns has retired."**

* * *

"Are you okay, Ravel-sama?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm just shaken up."

Ravel Phenex, Riser's little sister and Bishop, answered the concerns of one of his brother's Rooks, Isabela.

"Good thing we were barely out of the way. Could have gone way worse than it did." said the Knight, Karlamine.

The three of them, along with the three remaining Pawns, the second Knight Siris, and the second Bishop Mihae, had just witnessed the fall of their own base. Eight people in total had just seen a building _get utterly crushed by some mass of pressure._

Ravel, despite the show she was given, managed to keep her cool, and addressed the seven servants that were with her by clapping her hands.

"Onii-sama should also be fine. A building falling on him won't do him in. Let's think about ourselves for the time being."

She first spoke to the Knight. "Siris, sorry to ask you this, but please try to hold _that man_ back a little. We'll need to prepare properly if we want to stand a chance."

"Right away, Ravel-sama." The ponytailed girl started running towards the monster hiding in the dust hundreds of meters away.

Ravel then addressed the Pawns. "Shuriya, Marion, Burent. Please retire."

"Huh?" x3

"Siris might be able to buy time but I don't foresee her being able to hold back our opponent for long. It is painfully obvious that nothing you three can do will harm him, so you will only get in the way at this rate."

The three girls looked at each other and nodded sadly. "...We understand. Please, keep supporting Riser-sama." spoke Shuriya in the three's stead.

"I will."

"...I surrender." x3

They vanished in a flash of light.

 **"Three of Riser Phenex's Pawns have surrendered."**

Ravel sighed wearily. "It's just us four, ladies. Until Siris is inevitably forced to retire as well, let us think of something."

* * *

Raynare had just finished with her carpet-bombing of the woods. She didn't even have time to turn around before _the new building was also completely destroyed._

She was speechless. For a brief moment, at the very least.

"...It wasn't me!" She said loudly, probably to dodge responsibility and a punishment from the Satan currently judging the match. "Nono, wait! I wasn't aiming for the building itself in the first place, so it _really_ wasn't me, Satan-sama!" It seemed that saying that it wasn't her the first time was truly an act of pure cowardice.

"Gaaaah, he did say I only had to watch after the bombing, but I didn't think he would go that far!" She held her head and ruffled her hair in exasperation.

She then lifted her hands as if to say "I give up".

"Whatever, not my problem, not gonna think about it! I'll just sit right here and wait for my opponent-"

"THAT MAN IS COMPLETELY INSANE!"

"Oh, speak of the Devil. And in a literal sense, too. ...Damn, let me sit down for a moment, will you, woman? I have to deal with _that_ every day."

"I don't really care about you, but honestly it's been 10 minutes tops since the start of the match and I'm already at my limit!"

"...Welcome to my world." Raynare said depressingly.

"I'll deal with you quickly and punish that man myself!"

"...You took the words right out of my mouth."

A pissed off Yubelluna and a mentally exhausted Raynare faced each other on the rooftop of the old building.

* * *

 **(1): "Mountain Cutter" in German. I grabbed the name from "Chivalry of a Failed Knight", specifically the LN. Great read, by the way.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **I wanted to have the RG deviate from the norm, since it seems to be the current trend for DxD fics. I hope that for now the direction I steered it towards is satisfactory enough for you all. The one thing that I believe could have been handled better was Raynare's participation: the current circumstances behind it feel kinda forced, since the "confrontation between second-in-commands" came out of nowhere. It isn't sufficiently justified, and is probably something I'll try to change if I ever decide to adjust past chapters.**

 **This chapter is Orochi-centric, as you might have noticed. His notions of body control have culminated in the Bergschneider, a stupidly powerful shockwave-like attack. Of course, it isn't something he can just throw out whenever he wants, because it needs preparation and it also strains his muscles slightly. You'll see it happening maybe slightly more often than Abprall will, but not too often. I have, after all, already mentioned in the story that Orochi seeks consistency, not power.**

 **I left out of the battle three more Pawns. Admittedly, there really isn't space for them in this RG the way I set it up, but there's also the problem of Heaven's Gate. Ravel, the clever girl that she is, has already understood that a person that can take on two Senjutsu users will make short work of those three, and thus sends them away. She will realize in retrospect that it was the right decision, since there really isn't much in her team that could harm Orochi in the first place. Despite that, I believe I've found the right setup for the final battle, even considering the above mentioned "problem" that Heaven's Gate will undoubtedly introduce in the future as well.**

 **Next time, some Raynare action, and the prelude to the final battle.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	17. Arc 2 Chapter 12

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **You caught me a bit unprepared, to be honest. This week went by sooooo fast. I barely remembered it was time to upload, haha.**

 **Today we have a bit of a long one, it was 9 pages in my document for Arc 2. As anticipated last time, Raynare will have some screen time. This is no screen, of course, but I hope I'll be able to allow you all to picture properly what is happening, as I tried to do every chapter up to now.**

 **...I got nothing. Really, this is just a strange time of the week. Nothing happens, at all; it will probably stay that way until E3 comes around.**

 **Now _that's_ something I'm eagerly waiting for. In theory, the new Fire Emblem title for Switch will be announced, and I'm super hyped for it. Too bad I don't have a Switch myself! XD**

 **Anyway, back to the story. I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 12 - Angel VS Devil

The dust lifted by Orochi's second Bergschneider had yet to settle down.

The boy had started running through the path created by Raynare's Fragments, a sleeve over his mouth to prevent himself from breathing in the dust.

'Note to self: do NOT try Senjutsu again until a proper teacher is found.'

When he executed his second Bergschneider, he had tried to generate Ki, after merely observing the nekomata twins use it, and channeled it in his fist before launching the attack. And the technique came out too strong for him to control: he was in fact barely able to land a blow on his intended target rather than miss it completely and hit something else instead.

'Too bad. Such an attack from this distance wasn't enough to beat Phenex, I would've heard the announcement by now otherwise. ...!'

The Wind Brand reacted.

'...Someone is in front of me!'

He hurriedly sidestepped just as a literal _shockwave_ passed right through where he had been a moment before.

"Oh? You dodged my attack somehow."

Orochi was able to discern a person's silhouette in the dust, which was finally starting to settle. A woman with a ponytail and light armor was revealed, a zweihander held tightly in her hands.

"I am Siris, Knight of Riser Phenex-sama. I shall be your opponent, monster!"

"...Oh? You went and introduced yourself. I can appreciate some politeness from time to time, so I shall return the favor."

Orochi put one leg in front of the other and a hand on his heart before bowing slightly.

"My name is Kamakura Orochi, a human from Japan. Nice to fight you.

"Y-You mean "to meet you", right?"

"I know what I said, Knight-san. HAAA!"

The boy suddenly launched itself forward. Spinning around, he made a straight kick with his right leg, his heel aiming for the girl's face. However, the girl immediately disappeared from her spot.

"Haha, you're a fast one!"

Orochi lowered his feet to the ground as he flew in order to stop his own momentum, spun around once more using the landed foot as a pivot, and axe-kicked the zweihander approaching from behind with his other leg.

It was as if two swords had just clashed. Whatever remained of the dust around the two was blown away by the wind generated from the clash.

"Tch, were you hiding a weapon after all?"

"Silly girl, I AM the weapon!"

It seemed that Siris was mistakenly assuming that he had hid a blade of some kind in his pants.

'As if someone like me would do such a thing. Clearly they don't know what they are dealing with!'

He started applying pressure on the pinned down Knight.

"And the moment you forced our fight into a contest of strength was the moment you lost this battle!"

The Knight soon found her own feet dug forcefully into the soft ground.

"Wha-"

For the the third and final time, Orochi spun around, forcefully interrupting the clash with the zweihander. Its blade went straight past his raised leg, and after touching the ground with the formerly airborne foot, he darted forward and uppercutted the girl.

"Ghah!"

She landed on her butt as Orochi disappeared.

 **"Gespenst!"**

Siris started looking around frantically for her opponent, without realizing that he was above her, ready to perform a dive-kick.

 ***SLAM** *

Which landed straight on her head and drove it _literally into the ground._

"...Heh, that was almost an interesting fight. Almost."

The poor Knight, who had already passed out, disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind only the cracks that her head left on the now barren field.

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Knights has retired."**

Orochi looked around after hearing the announcement, the Wind Brand on his abdomen aiding him in his search.

"I have to say that she was decently well trained, though. The only blind spot I could find was above her, so staying on the ground as I used Gespenst wouldn't have been the best idea for me." he pondered aloud.

A sigh escaped his mouth.

"...Nobody has closed in while I fought. ...Well, at the very least these guys can take a hit from me without dying. Had they been humans, I'd need more than one hand to count the number of murders I'd have committed by now."

His gaze settled on the ruins of the new building, now visible with the dust gone.

"...How strange that he didn't come out, I was counting on it too."

The boy then hit his fist on the palm of his other hand, seemingly having an epiphany.

"Ah! Maybe now he's so pissed that he decided not to have a fair fight anymore, maybe he'll ambush me or something. That would be bad, so I'd better keep the Brand active for now."

After coming to that realization and deciding what to do, he resumed his running towards the ruins.

* * *

Raynare had been dodging Yubelluna's explosion magic for a while already, and had yet to start retaliating, as she didn't even unfold her wings yet while her opponent was flying a short distance from the roof.

'This woman... the strength of a Queen is obvious in her, but her movements are so very dull when compared to Kamakura's. I suppose I have to give him credit, he did say he thought we had a good margin of error.'

In the meantime, Yubelluna was thinking of something else.

'Why can't I hit this damn rogue Fallen?! I did my research on her and I'm sure she isn't supposed to put up this much of a fight!'

She truly did gather information on Raynare before the fight. 'Never let it be said that I don't think about Riser-sama's well-being. Better be safe.' she had thought.

Raynare was apparently an official rogue, banished from the Grigori, and was nothing more than a low-level Fallen Angel. Against a somewhat powerful, and most of all well-trained Devil, even if said Devil was also low-level, she shouldn't have been able to keep up.

'Can those three days of training really make this much of a difference?! Just what has she been through to reach a level equal to mine?'

The Queen's patience ran out.

"HEY, STOP PLAYING AROUND AND FIGHT ME PROPERLY!"

"Ok."

"!"

After dodging another blast, Raynare lifted a finger and pointed at Yubelluna. A Fragment emerged from it, and was shot directly at the Devil at incredible speed.

'! If that thing hits me I'm done for!' Yubelluna had already witnessed the power of those little segments of concentrated unstable light when she saw a good half of the forest blow up because of them. So, she hurriedly created a barrier that managed to block the shining needle that was sailing the air, which got itself stuck on the shield's surface.

The Fragment exploded.

 ***BOOM** *

Luckily the barrier managed to hold, but several cracks had appeared on the circle. It seemed that it was barely enough against that much destructive power.

Just as she lowered the crumbling barrier in a small cloud of smoke, _a foot hit her in the face._

She stumbled back as Raynare flipped in mid-air and landed back on the roof, her Kuoh uniform barely even damaged by her opponent's fire magic.

Yubelluna held her face with one hand. Her nose was bleeding.

"Hey, bomb woman. I sure hope you're not gonna keep trying to compete with me in terms of raw power. Mere fire magic will never be enough."

The Fallen was observing her with an unreadable expression on her face while saying that.

"...I can see that. Direct attacks are not cutting it. How about THIS, then?"

The Bomb Queen raised a hand and created a red magic circle one more time.

'Again? How stubborn can a single person get?'

This time however the attack was different. A second, bigger circle appeared under Raynare's feet.

"Oh, it's actually different. _Still pointless though._ "

Raynare extended her arms to the side and generated a Fragment in every finger. They all took flight, soaring and circling around Raynare at immense speed before charging towards her.

"What the?!"

Yubelluna did not understand that maneuver. Truthfully, she had expected the Fallen to take flight to dodge the exploding circle under her feet, and following that she would have closed in and launched an attack from a short distance in order to prevent her from escaping. However, the girl didn't even bother. Instead, she created several of those damn needles, which then flew in a full circle around her before separating and charging her own position.

The Fragments closed in on where Raynare was standing, and dived towards the circle on the ground.

They flew low enough to scratch the floor of the roof, and left marks all over the circle, which then disappeared.

"WHAT?"

"What IS it with Devils and shouting? Shut up already!" It was Raynare's turn to put her hand forward. The Fragments she had generated, still flying around, gathered close to her palm, forming a small spiked ball of light. She then fired that strange projectile at Yubelluna.

'Hell no, I'm not gonna try to block THAT!' Yubelluna flied away from her position, but it was futile. Raynare had closed her hand into a fist before pointing at her little spiky ball with her index and middle fingers. It seemed she was going to drive it from afar into Yubelluna.

"It's chasing me?!"

"That's right. Give it a tight hug, maybe you'll feel better afterwards."

"ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF ME?"

Phenex's Queen seemed angry as she ran from the oddly shaped bullet, but Raynare didn't think much of it, since she turned out to be less intimidating than what the Fallen was expecting.

Yubelluna's magic circle was so easy to neutralize that Raynare actually started to feel the boredom creeping in her being.

'Is this what Kamakura feels when he faces weak people? I have to admit that it's fairly unpleasant.'

* * *

When his own training sessions were over, Orochi himself was the one who ran her through the wringer after dinner time.

His idea of training for the first night was 'I will actively try to kill you until you find a way to prevent me from moving', and it took hours of what could have been valuable sleep time for Raynare to figure something out in sheer desperation. She really wanted to yell at him, but she quickly realized the purpose behind that night's training: he wanted her to draw out everything she had and then some, before he could start _training her properly,_ and make sure that nothing of what she had been able to drag out of her body would be lost.

The following evening, her focus would be movement optimization and understanding how kinetic energy transferred from muscle to muscle. Orochi had told her that martial arts, in his opinion, were 'kinda optional for a supernatural creature, but you're allowed to do whatever you want _after_ the Rating Game, right now we don't have time.'. He told her however that certain basics of fighting could apply to pretty much anyone despite how much or how little they knew about martial arts, so he had wanted to focus on those first. Those lessons were a 50-50 of theory and practice, with Orochi telling her what she was doing wrong and how to correctly perform certain movements, and her pretty much repeating the same things until muscle memory was established in her body.

The last evening, finally, was dedicated to the sharpening of her instincts. In other words, the same thing as the first night, but with the small difference of 'you're not allowed to think during the fight. I will do the same, which means I won't be able to hold back at all.'. That was the hardest part: Raynare had never been able to fight mindlessly like Orochi could, and despite what she learned she struggled immensely. As it turns out, though, pain was a _great_ motivator: even with several bruises on her, she eventually started to react automatically to some of the boy's own movements, clear and subtle both, and even managed to catch him off guard a few times before collapsing on the grass in their house's backyard at the end of the session. Nina had to call Asia over in the middle of the night to heal her, or so she heard.

Training with him and the Devils for three afternoons in a row, and being forced to keep up with a monster for three nights straight did wonders to both her body and mind. She had become stronger and faster, and had gained a half-decent level of control over her Fragments.

Something like _the Queen piece of a high-class Devil_ turned out to be not that big of a deal for those reasons.

* * *

"Careful, love, it's closing in." declared Raynare in a monotone voice.

"IS IT?"

"Nope, I lied."

"?"

The spiky ball was indeed gone, and Raynare wasn't pointing at anything anymore.

"Where is it now?!"

"I'll give you a hint."

Raynare pointed upwards.

 **"Cloud."**

'...Cloud?' Yubelluna instinctively looked at the fake sky.

Sure enough, the spiked ball of light _was free-falling towards her head at immense speed._

It was as if an air-to-air missile had been fired, with her as the target. She panicked and dodged to the side as the ball almost grazed her leg in its dive.

"Not good enough." Raynare extended the same fingers she used before from her hand and pointed to the sky.

The ball, faithfully following the order it had received, stopped in its tracks a short distance away from the hovering Yubelluna, and _lunged at her._

'I can't dodge it!' She channeled all the magic she could muster, and created a large barrier. Like the single Fragment did before, the ball stuck itself in the barrier.

But oddly enough, it didn't detonate.

"...Huh? Is it a dud?"

"As if. Time to finish this."

Raynare finally resolved to make a real move. She unfolded her wings, and with that single and natural movement Yubelluna felt all her hopes wash away.

The Fallen in front of her had not one, but _two pairs of wings._

Which remained in the Queen's line of vision for all of half a second.

There was still some distance between the two, forty meters or so. Raynare however crossed it in a flash and delivered a brutal kick to her spiked sphere, still stuck in the barrier. The sheer strength of the kick drived some of the Fragments that composed the ball of light deeper into the barrier, until they emerged _on Yubelluna's side._ The Fallen then used her own momentum to repel herself away from the shield, which was already cracking.

'...I see. She isn't an equal...'

"It's over."

She snapped her fingers.

'She has already surpassed me.'

 ***SNAP***

 ***BOOOOOOOOOOM** *

Once more, a cloud of smoke was generated from the explosion, and Yubelluna bursted out of it, still half-conscious but full of burns. She was free-falling towards the ground, but her body was still making slight movements. Movements that Raynare immediately noticed: she clicked her tongue and darted towards Yubelluna.

"Sorry, but being half-asleep won't allow you to leave this battlefield, and I have no time to waste!" She approached her opponent's body, grabbed her waist, and accelerated. She then forcefully glided as the two of them approached the ground, turned around, and kept accelerating as she quickly closed in to the old building.

She gained a little height before letting go of Yubelluna completely. Her body flew forward at great speed, and crashed against the wall.

Now truly out of commission, the Bomb Queen disappeared in a flash of light.

 **"Riser Phenex's Queen has retired."**

Raynare graciously landed in front of the building and released a breath. "Phew, hard part's over. Since Kamakura is going to handle the big shot himself, I should be able to handle what remains before directly helping him out. ...Well, assuming he doesn't start whining about some stupid crap like "You're in the way" and so on..."

She then started to leisurely walk towards the new building, while shaking her head as she thought of quite possible scenarios she would walk into.

* * *

 **"One of Riser Phenex's Knights has retired."**

Ravel clicked her tongue at that announcement.

"As expected, the poor girl didn't last long."

The Phenex girl's relative calmness, coming from the fact that she had predicted such a scenario, contrasted strongly with the feelings of the Rook Isabela.

"That damn bastard! To think that he would take out someone as strong as Siris so quickly!"

"Calm yourself, Isabela. Giving in to your anger will only quicken your own defeat at this rate." said the Knight Karlamine.

"Tch, guess you're not wrong there. He seems like the kind of guy that will take every opportunity he's given. My apologies, Ravel-sama."

"Don't worry about it." commented Ravel. "He took advantage of the slackened rules of this exceptional Rating Game, and turned the match in his favor from the very start. In a sense, he's quite amazing despite his ruthlessness. I suppose it's understandable for one to lose their cool after seeing what he did."

Suddenly the group of four saw a figure closing in slowly from afar.

Kamakura Orochi was walking towards them, barely even hurt despite the many battles he fought in that short time.

'Oh, a welcoming party! Everyone who remains is here, aside from Riser, that is. I wonder if he's still under the rubble after all?' thought the boy.

He pondered that possibility as he kept walking towards the group of Devils, still a long distance away.

And then, he sensed it. The one thing that the Brand couldn't help him identify; the one thing that he had, however, been familiar with for all his life. That one emotion could be felt from the Devils in front of him, an emotion that left him utterly disappointed every time it appeared.

An emotion he saw in one of the nekomatas' eyes as she ran away from him earlier.

Fear.

They were afraid of him. And he knew that any person that kept that fear in their hearts would never stand a chance against him.

It wasn't a matter of him bullying inferior fighters. He would battle against whoever got in the way no matter how strong or weak they were.

But a wavering heart could never put up a proper fight.

 **"Riser Phenex's Queen has retired."**

And just like that, that sensation of fear had intensified. A person strong enough to defeat their Queen was now also moving in their general direction and they were even more afraid because of that.

'...I guess there's no more entertainment to be had here. I'll quickly crush them before moving on to Riser-'

All of a sudden the rubble behind the group _exploded in flames._ As several pieces of what had been a building took flight and rained back to the ground, Riser Phenex climbed over what remained in his way and jumped down from the rubble silently.

He observed the human as he walked closer and closer towards him, and started walking himself for a short while before stopping at Ravel's side, who was still stunned by his appearance.

"...Ravel. Ladies. Please lend me your strength."

Four pairs of eyes looked at him in amazement. Such a request was incredibly odd coming from Riser after all. Said man raised his voice and addressed Orochi.

"Human! No, Kamakura Orochi! I acknowledge your power!"

That one sentence was enough to stop the boy in his tracks. He suddenly showed a blank expression in his face.

"Out of respect for you, we shall now come at you with everything we have! After seeing what you are capable of, I truly believe you deserve nothing less!"

Riser then briefly addressed his peerage. "Please forgive my selfishness, everyone. I haven't found myself overwhelmed to this extent in a long time, and this battle made me realize it."

His fingers were trembling. "It has been a while since the last time I was this excited. I can't help this feeling! I feel like I _want to defeat him no matter what!_ I don't even care about that wish anymore! I feel like I want to prove myself to him, even if I end up losing! Even if I get beaten up! Even if I die!"

While the normal servants didn't quite understand what their master was talking about, Ravel knew. There was _that one person_ her brother trained with in hand-to-hand combat. That person was, in a way, very similar to the human before them, and Riser had never been able to beat him. As such, she could understand Riser's feelings when confronted by someone powerful like that human.

"You have my support, Onii-sama!"

Ravel was the first in Riser's peerage to speak. She had to set an example, and reassure her servants. The five of them might have had a chance against the _beast_ in front of them, but only if their hearts were calm.

And sure enough...

"I will fight, Riser-sama!"

"I refuse to be left behind!"

"I shall also aid you, Riser-sama."

Riser smiled at them before turning to Orochi.

"So, there you have it. Will you allow them to fight by my side, Kamakura Orochi?"

The boy had been silent the entire time, listening to his opponent's speech with his head lowered.

He suddenly discarded his uniform jacket, and unbuttoned his blouse before taking it off as well.

His attire under the formal uniform of Kuoh Academy was the same he had used during his training.

He lifted his head, revealing _a huge and sincere smile on his face._

That smile was enough of an answer for the Devils, who all took a stance.

'They have poured their true feelings out. They are ready to go down even after witnessing my power, and will come at me with everything they have.'

Orochi's entire body tensed as he clenched his fists.

'This is the fight I was looking for.'

He took a deep breath.

'I must respond to their feelings!'

 **"GGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

 **It was time for him to fight at full power once more.**

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **So, how was the fight? Good? Bad? It was technically a side-show of sorts due to the circumstances I created, but again, I hope I was able to entertain.**

 **Now, from what I inferred from the show (the LN for the most part, to be fair), it looks like gaining wings is a pretty big deal. And Raynare has already gained a pair, now totaling at 4 wings. This implies _something_ of course, but I'll let you, the readers, figure out what that something is. As for me, I'll just give you a little clue in the form of this next sentence.**

 _ **One does not simply "keep up" with Orochi.**_

 **Make of this what you will.**

 **After the fight, a bit of anime-y stuff, and a reference to the light novels. Riser's old training partner is mentioned in volume DX1 (a short side-story). Go look it up if you want, no spoilers from me.**

 **Anyway, this RG is fundamentally different from the original one. Normally, Riser would be arrogantly boasting about how strong he is compared to Rias' peerage, or something to that effect. He would also be, statistically speaking, evidently superior to the opposing team. That is obviously not the case in APtF: he is in fact completely overwhelmed, to the point where putting up a facade or getting angry about it will serve no purpose, and this is where his attitude changes. He can't allow himself to take Orochi lightly anymore: hell, he probably won't be able to do much on his own, so he realizes he has to gather all the strength he can muster to even have a chance. And asks his remaining servants for aid.**

 **I went all out for the final chapters of the arc. It should be evident just by looking at the content of this one.**

 **Next time, the final bout of the arc. Reviews are welcome.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	18. Arc 2 Chapter 13

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I'm getting incredibly distracted these few weeks, I'm really sorry. I'm also stuck _again_ on Arc 3, so there's that as well. I blame the fact that I can't really write well when it comes to "normal" scenes. All of this has led me to making a certain decision regarding this fanfic, which I'll explain at the bottom. Don't worry, I don't want to abandon this story just yet. I just need some time.**

 **For now, we have the final battle of this Rating Game, it's very late-coming but it's here! After this, although I would like to get stuff done with Arc 2 the way I intend to, it's simply not possible just yet, because I'm going to visit relatives of mine for the next week and I won't have easy access to this fic. As for how I want to approach the publishing of the final chapter of Arc 2, I will explain that at the bottom as well.**

 **So yeah. I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"...Oh man, he's gonna stop playing around." said Unryuu, at the edge of her seat while Orochi started to discard the clothes that would get in his way in the screen.

"H-He was playing around? Does he not take this battle seriously after all?!" Indignation was evident in Lady Phenex's voice.

"Please calm down, Mother." Ruval addressed his mother who was getting angry for foolish reasons. "Had this Game gone any other way, Riser would have already lost by now. The human's power is overwhelming, but it seems that my brother has found a better reason than before to give it his all anyway. Look, even little Ravel, who wasn't interested in the fight earlier, seems ready to go!"

"Indeed, this is an entirely different atmosphere from the one before." admitted Anya. "But I wonder if it will be enough against _him._ "

"That's right." said Nina. "Now starts the real fight. Orochi-kun has yet to reveal his ability but he seems ready to do so at any given moment."

 _"Mutti, look! Bruder is smiling really hard right now! Why is that? I was sure that nobody would ever smile during a fight."_

Nina smiled at her daughter's actually legitimate question.

 _"He's happy, Agnes. He's satisfied with what is currently in front of him."_

 **"GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

The boy's warcry _shook the entire pocket dimension._

* * *

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

A renewed spirit within them, Karlamine and Isabela were the first to start running towards the human. He had also charged forward like a raging bull with incredible speed.

Karlamine's sword suddenly caught fire, and she swung the blade surrounded by flames horizontally. Orochi immediately parried that with his arms, getting slight burns and no slash wound, but left his abdomen exposed in the process. Isabela took advantage of that and punched his stomach with all her strength, and he stumbled back with pain erupting close to where the Brand laid.

"KHH!" He however recovered in an instant and charged in again, a spot under his shirt shining green.

Karlamine swung again, but Orochi dodged to the side, made a step forward and readied a fist. The Knight was luckily able to pull back the blade and parry the blow.

The flames were dispersed by the force generated, but it was good enough. Anyone, even that human, would need half a moment to prepare their next move, and there was someone behind her ready to attack. So she moved out of the way just as a flaming heel slammed into the boy's face, sending him flying.

Riser himself had attacked this time, while Ravel and Mihae were preparing a spell in the back. The Bishops would chant and strike with everything they had, while he, Karlamine and Isabela would keep Kamakura occupied. Ravel, just by seeing the lack of slash wounds on the boy after his fight with Siris, had surmised that he had some way of predicting his opponent's moves, and decided to first verify if there were any obvious weaknesses. She had speculated that perhaps it would be harder for him to adjust to more than one person attacking him, and proposed to the three servants (hopefully while Riser was listening under the rubble, which thankfully was exactly what happened) that they attack in succession while staying one behind the other under Kamakura's line of sight.

Ironically, she was right despite not really thinking she would find any weak spots. Unbeknownst to her, the Wind Brand did its job by sending pulses of magic particles that would analyze the wind around the user and detect any "foreign objects" in an instant. However, the Wind Brand wouldn't be able to detect someone _as long as they hid right behind one of those objects._ That defensive seal had detected with precision Karlamine's movements and Kamakura was in fact able to move accordingly: however, he wasn't ready for Riser's consecutive strike, and he was launched far enough that she and Mihae would easily be able to finish their chanting and hit him themselves.

As Isabela moved out of the way herself, Riser also gathered his flames in an orb and prepared to strike Kamakura from a distance.

"We're ready, Onii-sama!"

"Alright, in that case... FIRE!"

Not one, but three somewhat big orbs of flames were fired at Orochi, who was starting to get up.

"...Heh, do you really think I'll keep letting you do as you please?"

He straightened up and lifted his head before crossing his arms in front of his chest, as the fireballs approached his position.

"The door to Paradise opens!"

And he spread them to the sides, palms facing outwards.

 **"HEAVEN'S GATE!"**

 ***ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN***

 _ **Everything turned black and white.**_

 _ **And the fireballs disappeared into nothingness.**_

Five people in front of him and some others in the VIP room stared at the scene with their mouths open. Ajuka himself was baffled, while Raynare, the only one that knew about Orochi being able to do _that_ , simply watched on from afar while wondering what was going through his head.

"Is he fighting at full strength? I didn't think they'd be able to force his hand this much."

Raynare sighed and started walking again, despite the _immense pressure that had just been released._

"I wonder... if he's having fun..." She said in a sad tone.

Meanwhile Ajuka, who couldn't believe his eyes, had immediately started making conjectures in his mind about what had just happened, while doing his best to keep the crafted dimension from _breaking down_ via his Kankara Formula.

"Incredible! The entire dimension is becoming unstable! But it doesn't look like an Inversion, so what is happening to Orochi-kun?!"

He could only speculate that the boy had simply figured out how to extend the Gate's influence outside his body, but unbeknownst to him the answer was even simpler than that.

Orochi had merely found out that _opening the Gate willingly had the same effect as Inverting._

* * *

He had discovered that this maneuver was possible during the last night of training with Raynare. He called it an "experiment", and a little exception to the rule of not thinking during the fight that had been established for that session. It happened near the end of the session itself: Orochi, seemingly satisfied with Raynare's results for that evening, had wanted to try something new.

"Before we go to sleep, there's something I want to try out."

"Gee, I wonder what it will be."

"...I get it, you're tired. You've done enough for tonight, I just need you to stay here and see what happens. That's all."

"As long as you don't hit me with whatever you want to try, fine."

"..."

"REALLY, KAMAKURA? REALLY?!"

"IT CAN'T BE HELPED, CUT ME SOME SLACK!"

"Uuuuuuugh, damn it all. Get it over with, it can't be worse than this hellish training!"

"...Right. It would only be fair to tell you what's gonna happen, so I'll warn you. I want to try forcing the Gate open, and see what happens."

He stepped back after saying that, ready to withstand another earful of complaints. However, nothing came out of Raynare's mouth oddly enough.

"..."

"...Um, are you still there Raynare?"

"...I see. Hurry up and do it if you can."

"Errr, do you really have no objections?"

 _"None."_

That was the response that came from the oddly blank-faced Raynare.

He had been legitimately freaked out by her behaviour back then. Raynare supposed that it was fair enough, it _was_ out of character for her to say such things and pretty much declare herself ready to take on Heaven's Gate with a straight face.

Just as Raynare expected, he was able to do it. The reason for her collapse in the last session was, in fact, her taking the full brunt of an opened Gate's pressure. Nina had even misunderstood the situation when she woke up startled by the noise, thinking that he had Inverted while she wasn't looking (she had gone to sleep hours before), and scolded him for several minutes. Back then, he didn't budge and let her believe that he had Inverted, and simply apologized repeatedly while Asia was busy fixing the Fallen's wounds with a sleepy look on her face.

Raynare had already understood the process though, and sure enough the boy had given her an explanation she had somewhat expected before meeting Unryuu that morning. The night before, Orochi had imagined his Abnormality as a "bubble", and simply reshaped his body in order to force it to _burst._

Apparently he had already tried to tamper with the Gate behind everyone's back, so he knew he could do it, but had yet to try opening it completely back then.

The girl, after hearing that, had then proceeded to punch him repeatedly in the face for doing something so reckless.

"You could have Inverted for all you knew, idiot!" was her complaint.

Opening the Gate had in fact created the same black-hole effect that the Abnormality had when it Inverted. He was able to absorb the magic particles surrounding him without losing control, however. It could be said that, despite not having exactly Inverted, he had become able to access both the normal ability and the Inverted one of his Abnormality at will, due to his peculiar body.

Of course, he was probably assuming that nobody aside from Unryuu knew about him being capable to reshape his muscles, hence his freaking out over Raynare's oddly accepting behaviour. But both her and Nina were well aware of his past, because he told them about it himself despite not remembering about having done so.

They _really_ had to have a talk with him after the battle, they decided.

* * *

The pressure vanished just as fast as it had appeared. Even the artificial landscape regained its normal colors. Whatever Orochi did, it was over.

Riser was feeling dizzy: his magic had been partially drained and he felt sick as a result.

'I-Is this his ability?! What in the Underworld did he do?'

Their combined magic attack had also been obliterated by an invisible force. The magic particles themselves had been completely and utterly destroyed, or at least that was what he was able to sense. However something wasn't right: after disrupting a spell of any kind, there should have been lingering particles in the air. But that wasn't the case.

Kamakura had "opened a gate" a moment earlier. And when said "gate" had opened, it had started absorbing all magic in the vicinity.

'...Could it be that rather than destroy magic, it simply transports it elsewhere instead? Or perhaps he's storing it away. But if that is truly the case...!'

He turned around hurriedly. "Ravel, Mihae! Don't cast anymore magic-"

He realized quickly that his words weren't reaching his Bishops. _Both of them had already passed out, and light was enveloping them._

 **"Riser Phenex's two Bishops have retired."**

Orochi laughed lightly. "Haha, as expected from a strong devil like you, Phenex. You were able to withstand the Gate somewhat, but the same can't be said about those two Bishops. Look, Mask-san and Bandage-san are also struggling."

Sure enough, Isabela and Karlamine were on their knees, breathing heavily. Their magic core had been destabilized, but magic power wasn't as prominent in them as the two Bishops and they weren't as frail physically, so they were still conscious.

"Shall we continue, then? I should be able to handle three people a lot more easily than a group of five."

It seemed that he didn't plan to open the "gate" again, but to be fair there was no need for him to do so, reasoned Riser. It would serve little purpose against opponents that favored physical brawls, and considering he was already very difficult to overpower, his group's situation had clearly worsened tenfold.

As he pondered what to do, his Rook and Knight suddenly lifted themselves up and charged at Orochi.

"Hah, I don't know what you can accomplish in that state, but I'll accept your challenge!" He also started running at the two girls approaching him.

He quickly made a fist, ready to strike Isabela who was the closer of the two. However, Isabela ducked under the swing, and jumped with wide arms at Orochi, hooking his shoulder and blocking his arm while using the momentum to move behind him. Karlamine, quickly understanding her companion's intentions, did the same with Orochi's other arm.

"Gh! What do you think you're doing?! Let go!"

"Riser-sama, take him out before he opens the Gate again!" shouted Isabela.

"Don't worry about us, and give it everything you've got, Riser-sama!" echoed Karlamine.

"!"

Riser snapped out of his trance, clicked his tongue and hesitated for just a moment before generating an immense orb of flames above his head.

"My apologies, you two! THIS ENDS NOW!" He then fired it at the trio.

Orochi, for obvious reasons, was unable to defend or even brace himself for the blow.

 ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM** *

In half a second, the place where Orochi and Riser's servants were standing became a sea of flames.

 **"Riser Phenex's Rook and Knight have retired."**

They had decided to sacrifice themselves to try and bring down Kamakura along with them.

The boy was still conscious, but had taken the blow at full force unlike the girls that tried to hide behind him while his arms were locked.

He was kneeling on the ground, with his undershirt burned off, and his entire body full of burns and trembling. A shaking forearm and a tightened fist were all that had prevented him from simply hitting the floor and pass out. Had he not developed fire resistance at all, he would have lost right then and there.

"...Amazing. Simply amazing." commented Riser in a low voice. "I don't quite understand your ability, but there's no denying the fact that it is truly powerful. ...No, that sounds wrong actually. What is powerful is _you,_ Kamakura. You took my strongest attack straight on and didn't die after all."

He walked over to Orochi, who was currently breathing heavily and trying not to cry out in pain.

"I shall finish this. Don't hold this against me." Three meters away from the half-burned trembling body, Riser lifted a hand and aimed the palm at the boy, another flame orb coming into existence.

 ***STAB** * **x10**

Riser was suddenly surrounded by _light needles stuck in the ground around his feet._

"!" He immediately spread his wings, which truly looked like those of the bird of legends, and darted away.

 ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOM** *

Although he managed to evade the explosions, it wasn't over yet.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He didn't even have time to look around that a foot was planted just under his throat, and dragged him to the ground for several meters.

Riser looked in rage at the person responsible as he laid under her foot in pain.

"Look at you people, getting carried away and forgetting I'm still here! How arrogant can a person get?!"

Raynare, who Riser could have sworn was angry for a completely different reason than what she had just stated, aimed a finger at the Devil squirming under her foot and generated another Fragment.

"...GET OFF ME, FALLEN!"

A pillar of fire erupted from underneath them, and sent Raynare off to the side as Riser slowly got up.

"Can't you read the mood? Can't you understand?! You interrupted our fight right at the finale! After we struggled so much to even damage that man, you think you can just waltz in and get in the way right when it's about to end?"

He was truly mad. He and his team both put in incredible effort in order to defeat Kamakura, and the Fallen had completely defiled the image of the great battle he had with him.

"...W-Well, yeah, it's exactly w-what I did after all..." Raynare, who didn't have nearly as thick of a skin as Orochi did, was already starting to disappear, too injured by Riser's ferocious attack to continue fighting. "But y-you're the one who d-doesn't understand. The f-fight is not over yet! Kamakura...

 _Simply needed a few seconds to catch his breath._ "

She then raised a shaking hand and gave Riser the middle finger before disappearing.

 **"Fallen Angel Raynare has retired."**

Riser stared at the spot where the injured Fallen laid for several seconds as he elaborated her final statement in his brain.

'...Kamakura needed to catch his breath. So she intervened right as I was about to finish the fight, and kept me occupied for as long as she could... Which means!'

He turned his head in a flash towards the place where Orochi had been kneeling.

The boy was standing firmly before Riser. He wasn't trembling anymore and seemed completely unbothered by the burns on his skin.

"...Ha. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So you're still able to fight, Kamakura! This is great, the best there is! Give me more, human! MORE!"

He expanded violently his phoenix wings and charged Orochi with incredible speed. He then drew back his arm and punched the boy's face with the full strength of both his arm and his momentum.

 _It was the same as punching a mountain. Orochi didn't even flinch._

"W-WHAT THE?!"

"Sorry, Riser."

His arm was grabbed.

"There's no point anymore. You are now _unable to harm me._ "

 _ **"Abprall."**_

 **"Riser Phenex has retired. The winner of this Rating Game is Kamakura Orochi!"**

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **This chapter requires very little explaining, I feel. The only obscure part is the fact that Raynare seems suddenly capable of withstanding the Gate, but the answer behind that question is the same as when I invited you people to wonder how exactly the Fallen was able to grow wings so quickly. As such, I'll leave this to your imagination as well.**

 **Now for the important part. This fanfic will go on hiatus until I finish writing Arc 3. The hiatus will start after I publish the last chapter of Arc 2, and a little trailer chapter of sorts for Arc 3 I wrote some time ago, which will introduce a certain plot point for said arc (which, mind you, is still the Excalibur Arc despite what you'll end up seeing), and will also serve as a teaser for what will come in Arc 4 (the arc that will actually be original).**

 **The reasoning behind this decision is simple. I've getting distracted by other things, just as frivolous as this one. For example, I've been playing an extensive Japanese ROM hack of Final Fantasy 6 (I'm purely a retrogamer, sue me), that has taken a lot of time away due to how hard it is.**

 **Why am I playing it so frequently? Because my connection is shit, and whenever I'm trying to record with other people for my YT channel I have trouble, which tends to discourage me from even trying to upload lately. In general, let's just say that these few things I do to distract myself from my daily life of incredible boredom are slipping away from my grasp due to poor decisions me and my family have made regarding our personal comforts, and I'm quietly trying to cope with it all.**

 **I'll leave tomorrow for the aforementioned visit to my relatives. I plan to relax and think about absolutely nothing in a place where connection (even with phones) is even more terrible than here. I want to pick myself back up when I return with a clean state of mind. I want to start uploading videos again, and more frequently if I can manage it. I want to be able to juggle myself between my hobbies and my real life.**

 **Again, the first thing I'll do when I come back is publishing those two chapters I mentioned, o** **ne a few days after the other rather than a week. For now, I bid you farewell. Next week, the epilogue and the promised trailer a few days after. Look after yourselves, you guys.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	19. Arc 2 Chapter 14 (Epilogue)

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path To Freedom.**

 **It's been 10 days, more or less. I came back from my little vacation yesterday evening, and only now, after 24 hours, I felt like turning on my PC. The thing is, the signal I get from my router is even more shit than usual past a certain hour of the day. Fortunately we're talking like 10 P.M., could've been a lot earlier, and by proxy a lot worse, haha.**

 **Anyway, a few minutes ago I logged in, and I found out that my fic managed to get 10k views! That's a lot for me, considering the fact that I didn't expect this story to get many favs and follows in the first place. Then again, it's not like I have many of those right now, and I have no idea of what the ideal time/viewers "ratio" would be, haha. I mean, this has been going on since March after all.**

 **What I wanted to say is thank you. There weren't many of you, but you put up with me until now, and it means a lot.**

 **For this chapter we've got a bit of character progression, and the mystery of the stupidly strong Abprall will be unveiled. Don't mind the lack of a meaningful title, as I said before I'm trash at this stuff. XD**

 **As anticipated before, after this little epilogue for Arc 2 I will upload, in a few days' time, my teaser for Arc 3 before going into hiatus. Build up hype, and review. I want to know how well, or how badly (e.e) I've handled this arc, and whether or not the teaser seems worth the wait.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 2 Chapter 14 - Epilogue

 **Abprall.**

It was German for "Rebound", and was just about the strongest technique Orochi Kamakura could come up with, utilizing what he had and what he learned until that moment.

Heaven's Gate was an Abnormality that absorbed shocks and traumas of all kinds. Among the things that could be considered the cause of traumas was _pain itself,_ of course.

Orochi Kamakura was a man capable of exploiting anything he was able to influence. From the moment he heard Ajuka Beelzebub call him a "container", he knew that whatever was inside him could be easily manipulated by changing the shape of his body. As such, by doing exactly that, he found a way to slightly mutate the Abnormality, and make it able to _remember and_ _store the sensation of "pain" in a different dimension,_ which was of course the void-like space behind the Gate itself. Following that, he would then inject that psychological burden into someone else's brain at will, by emanating it as an impulse and spreading it equally among multiple people like he had done during his training, or by making contact with a single person and unloading everything like he had done with Riser. He was merely giving back what he had received in all his years of abuse, while adding a little, special ingredient, straight from his memories.

 _Despair._

Abprall couldn't physically harm people, but it would trick a brain into thinking that the target had been hurt severely. They would feel all the pain he felt in the past, and probably pass out on the spot from the shock. It was a given, however, that such a dangerous technique would require some immediate adjustments before it could even be tested: in order to not cause permanent trauma, for example, Orochi made sure to inject his pain only in the hippocampus, the area of the brain dedicated to short-term memory.

Abprall was specifically meant to be sort of a panic button in case he was about to lose. One day after the Rating Game had been established, Anya had forced Orochi to sit down and talk about what his opponent was capable of.

Riser couldn't be harmed by normal means, and would easily regenerate all wounds thanks to the power of the Phoenix he had inherited as a Phenex Devil.

The only way to beat him was to either throw enough power at him to overcome his regeneration factor, or to induce mental trauma. Quickly realizing that the second scenario was a lot easier to create, Orochi only needed a few hours, one day later, to come up with a general idea of how to deal with Riser, and explained it to Nina before testing it during training.

Strangely enough, she was the first between her and Raynare to not express objections to his idea.

He had wondered what was up with that for the entirety of the day, back then.

In any case, in every fight where his opponent would be strong enough to hurt him, he would also be able to keep storing information on more and more kinds of pain.

Even if the Gate did its work in bolstering his pain resistance against various things, with every battle where Orochi would be hit by something new, Abprall's potential effect on an opponent could only rise.

That was Orochi Kamakura's trump card.

 **Abprall.**

* * *

 _"Bruder, Bruder! You won, it was so awesome!"_

 _"I know, Agnes, I was there, now stop squeezing me like this, or Bruder will suffocate."_

Orochi was in a hospital within the Underworld. He and Riser had been carried over right after the Game, and apparently most of the injured during the battle were also recovering in the same building.

It also seemed that they were all healing quickly, and would be all discharged in the evening. Even Riser, a direct target of Abprall, was relatively fine despite the trauma.

Shortly after waking up from a nap he decided to take, the boy found himself surrounded by Anya and her group, along with Nina, Agnes, and an upset and groggy Raynare.

Needless to say, Agnes had run into the room like a bolt of lightning, and jumped violently into Orochi. She had luckily snapped him out of a dream he was having about _some sort of annoying self-proclaimed goddess,_ who was bothering him about something he could have cared less about _,_ so he didn't even get mad at her.

"An astounding victory, Orochi-kun. My most sincere congratulations." said Nina while trying to pry away Agnes from the boy.

Orochi was still tired, and annoyed by the dream, but managed to calm down his nerves after hearing that and answered with a sincere smile.

"Thanks, Nina-san. I did my best."

A certain someone's efforts were being ignored all of a sudden, and that someone made sure to vocalize her thoughts immediately.

"...Geez, no love for me, huh?"

"...O-Of course Raynare-san also did great-"

"Too late, don't wanna hear it. I'm taking your share of dessert tonight."

"NO, please, I bought that pudding for myself, Raynare-saaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Nina walked out with Agnes in tow, completely flustered as she chased an offended Raynare walking away. It was too late to earn forgiveness for poor Nina apparently.

Only an awkward silence remained. Anya, with a bright red face, tried to break it.

"Um, Orochi-kun, I would like to-"

"Don't." Orochi interrupted her immediately. "I simply did what I felt like doing, as usual."

A sigh.

"...I see." Anya seemed satisfied with that.

"In that case, I suppose we should also go. Come, Asia."

"B-Buchou-san?! Please don't p-pull me out, I also wanted to c-congratulate Orochi-san! Buchou-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaan?!"

"Stop whining, Asia, and leave them alone!"

The door closed, and Orochi was simply left alone with Unryuu, who had not spoken since the moment she had entered and only now was staring straight at him.

"..."

"..."

"What, you got a problem?"

"Why did you default to that?! Are you actually a delinquent?"

"Hm, good question. I've beaten up pretty much everyone but Nina, Agnes and Asia. Maybe I'm the kind of delinquent that leaves defenseless people alone? What do you think?"

"I think you're crazy. Didn't I count as defenseless when I was still human in your eyes?"

"Yeah, then I found out you were a Devil and promptly brought balance back into the world."

"WHAT KIND OF LOGIC IS THAT?!"

In an effort to not give in to the impulse of strangling her friend, Unryuu calmed down and asked shyly:

"W-What I actually wanted to ask you is... Um... A-Are we cool? Like, for real?"

'...What? Oh wait, I get it. She's still upset about that whole deal. Didn't I tell her that I wasn't angry in the first place?'

Orochi immediately disagreed with the thought he was having, realizing it was complete bullshit. He had been angry, very angry at her, but he truly had gotten over it, and told her so that very morning before school.

So he laid back down on his hospital bed, looked at the ceiling and said: "Until you manage to severely piss me off again, yes."

"A-Are you actually taking for granted that I will eventually do so?!"

"I am always prepared for the worst."

"What do you mean, "prepared", what are you gonna do to me?"

Unryuu was about to panic when Orochi started laughing heartily.

"Hahahahaha, man, I missed this. Never change, Nishijima."

"Unryuu."

"...Come again?"

He had actually heard that and understood the message; he simply asked, with that question, for the logic behind that request.

"Aren't we friends?"

"I don't know, are we, Devil-san?"

"...I would like to believe so." answered Unryuu honestly.

"Careful with that word." Orochi gave her that warning with a gentle voice. "Beliefs are merely half-assed ideas crafted only from a single person's point of view, and as such they are frail and easily subject to change. And easily exploited for that matter, in some cases. If you want a certain fact to become reality, work hard for it, until it becomes undeniable truth."

"..."

"Until that moment arrives, and hopefully past that point, I'll add one more pain in the ass to the list, and call you Unryuu."

And just like that, a radiant smile appeared on the girl's face.

* * *

A few days after Orochi's discharge, he and Raynare were sitting alone under a yakiniku stand at about dinner-time. The weather was worsening lately, but Raynare had insisted to go eat in that particular day, saying that "A bit of rain doesn't bother me."

They had already received their orders when Raynare started talking quietly. The two of them were sitting in the corner of the stand so that they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Be honest with me, Kamakura. Do you remember what happened last week at home?"

"Aside from the whole "being forced into a Rating Game" thing, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I told you to be honest. No more bullshit."

"...Fine, I lied. Yeah, I remember."

Raynare and Nina had wanted to speak to Orochi about that whole ordeal and its consequences. However Raynare had stopped the human, claiming that she thought the boy had been lying the whole time about his not remembering the outburst, and assured her that she would handle everything.

The purpose of that pseudo-date at a yakiniku stand was in fact to get Orochi to admit to what he did.

And nothing else. Nothing whatsoever.

"...How long have you been like... _that?_ "

"Dunno. It feels like forever at times."

Rain started pouring over the stand.

"Sorry about all that, Raynare. Making you people clean up my mess is the last thing I wanted."

"I don't need apologies. I need you to keep training me."

"...Heh. Yes, ma'am."

"Why did you accept my request anyway? You could have said no. You could have disregarded me completely."

"Because I have my own request for you, Raynare. It is something that I can only ask to you; anyone else wouldn't have the guts to satisfy it."

"..."

"I need a deterrent, Raynare. Someone has to be able to stop me if I ever start rampaging. And I can't have that someone's mind plagued by hesitation."

"A-Are you saying-"

"Yes. If I lose control, if it looks like I won't be able to come back...

 **I want you to kill me.**

Until then, I don't mind having you at my side and training you for what might come."

The atmosphere became as heavy as the rain.

"I have never, _ever,_ trusted someone to this extent. It's really important to me. Please promise me that you'll do what you have to if it ever comes down to it."

Raynare seemed paralyzed as she thought over Orochi's request. She would cross all kinds of lines if she killed him under any circumstance. Her life would be over in an instant.

'...What am I thinking, my normal life was over the moment I started sharing a roof with this guy.'

"I promise."

 **END ARC 2**

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **And there we go, end of this arc.**

 **Finally, a little bit of Raynare's role in the story is revealed. While Orochi enjoys spending time with his new family, he could have another "episode" for all he knows, SO he needs a failsafe of some sort. This, however, is the starting point. The moment where the group** **of people that will become Orochi's strength is born. Just like Issei has Rias and her peerage, and many more people he has met in his adventures, I pretty much want Orochi to have the same thing, or at least something similar. Of course, I have no intention of revealing my true plans until Arc 4! XD**

 **Meanwhile, our chaotic white-haired buddy has finally made a friend! Whether Unryuu becomes part of the main group or not, I haven't decided yet. At the very least, until Arc 5, she won't be very prominent from now on. I hate the thought of having to give a character in my story the Misaka Mikoto treatment (For those who don't know, I'm talking about a certain girl in the To Aru series, who is kind of a side character in the first string of light novels, despite being actually relevant in her own right and getting her own anime spin-off as a result), but truth be told, I still have to decide Unryuu's role in the story. Good old Kazuma Kamachi (the author) made Mikoto more of a presence in the story only after observing the kind of feedback he was receiving, I hear. In a different dimension, perhaps, Mikoto would have ended up like Himegami!**

 **...Only the people that know the story will get it, but whatever.**

 **Finally, I've also dropped a little "teaser of the teaser" in this chapter. A self-proclaimed goddess invading our MC's dreams. Mysterious! The teaser that I intend to upload soon will allow you to briefly explore one of those dreams, and as I said before, it will introduce a few plot points for both Arc 3 and Arc 4.**

 **This is all I've got for today. Next time, an ominous premonition.**

 **I'll be waiting for your reviews, because I really, really need them this time.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	20. Arc 3 Prologue

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back, for the last time for now, to A Path to Freedom.**

 **The promised Arc 3 teaser is here! As I mentioned, this little prologue of mine introduces mostly stuff that will be relevant for Arc 4, but its most important plot point will become pivotal in Arc 3, which will be the Excalibur Arc. I will also give the official name for Arc 4, but only after you read this stuff! XD**

 **Again, I will try to get back to writing as soon as I pull myself out of this ridiculous writer block. Hopefully it won't hold me back for too long.**

 **Before we start, review!**

 **Sovaton - I'm glad you liked the direction I took for some of the characters. And you're absolutely right about the story's pacing, sadly. It's mostly a prominent fact in Arc 1, but I indeed often neglect to "fatten" my story, so to speak. It's certainly the result of my complete inexperience back when I started APtF in March, compared to now where I'm slightly less of a noob, but still a noob nonetheless. As for Orochi's over-reaction, it can be explained by the fact that, as you certainly saw, his mind is actually a lot frailer than he thinks, and values the few bonds he has a lot more than he lets on. And hey, never be afraid to say your piece, I'm just as inexperienced as you are after all. XD**

 **That's it for now. I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Prologue - Dream

 **"In one week's time you are going to die, Child of the Wind."**

For several nights in a row, Orochi had been having that same recurrent dream.

He always found himself in a Japanese bedroom. It was incredibly spartan, only having a futon, which he was always sitting in front of, lit candles in the corners and nothing else.

Upon the futon sat always the same woman, always cross-legged. She had short blue hair and dark red eyes; she wore a red shirt with long white sleeves and a long black skirt with a red flower print hem. She also had a round mirror stuck in the center of the chest of her shirt, and had a large twisting rope circle on her back, called shimenawa in Japan, with pieces of zigzag-shaped paper attached to it, called shide.

Her aura was oppressing. It truly seemed like the aura of a goddess, a Shinto goddess if the instruments on her back were any indication.

 **"However, that fate can be changed. Bind your soul to mine, and I shall grant you salvation."**

She always said those same two sentences every time Orochi dreamt of her, the first of which would always change the "time he had left" according to the date of the following day. That small factor was pretty much the only thing that prevented Orochi from dismissing those dreams completely.

No recurrent dream would ever accomodate for the date in the real world. It truly felt like a premonition.

But Orochi's answer once again didn't change.

"Not interested. Stop showing up."

 **"...Stubborn as ever, I see."**

Beyond the two sentences that were always the same, the goddess would then spend a few minutes every night trying to convince him to accept her proposition.

 **"Did you know? Putting my capabilities of a goddess aside for a moment, it has been demonstrated that a mind in a dreamlike state is capable of briefly peering into the future, be it near or far."**

"Some goddess you are, throwing science and magic into the mix with those words. You need to understand that the decisions a person makes aren't as black-and-white as you make them out to be. To think that you would tell me that just because I'm not a Shintoist, just how desperate are you?"

 **"Are you sure about that?"**

The goddess disregarded his jab and continued.

 **"Any decision that barely resembles a "yes" or a "no" is merely a ramification of those two prime answers. In any other case, it's merely a matter of the person trying to stall for time out of fear of the unknown."**

"If you really think that, tell me exactly what you didn't get when I said I'm not interested."

 **"What I don't get is your reasoning. You've been adamantly refusing me for a week now, and I honestly have no intention of leaving you alone even if you do give me a good reason."**

"I told you already. I will not be shackled down by anyone, not even a goddess."

 **"And _I_ told you that those shackles you're imagining are nothing but conjecture."**

"I have no choice aside from making conjectures with someone who, as far as I'm concerned, is a total stranger. I am _not_ going to risk my future by making shady deals with a goddess I don't worship."

 **"Every single member of the Kamakura household has been worshipping me. They have always been way too laidback about the whole "worship" thing however. That must be the reason why that Leopold bastard made his way into your father's head so easily, and founded the White Serpent sect a few years before your birth. I am indeed similar to that beast in a way, but I am actually fundamentally different from it, and-"**

 _"It does not matter. I will not submit to you."_

The flames of the candles flickered at the boy's subtle burst of anger. However the woman who proclaimed herself a goddess seemed completely unfazed.

Orochi was born a Kamakura, but grew up as a Goenitz. He knew nothing of this goddess, and only had to deal with that stupid crafted religion that worshipped the Eight-Headed Serpent. She might have been a goddess, but he still had no reason to believe her words, and wasn't willing to lend his strength to people he didn't trust.

She started speaking again, unbothered by the boy's internal turmoil.

 **"...As I was saying, after the creation of the White Serpent I have been deprived of powerful followers. If you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for Shintoism itself. Several minor religions in Japan are collapsing from the lack of faith after all.**

 ** _And most importantly, a war is going to break out soon._ **

**Shinto followers have been forbidden to participate in it, but since my position as a goddess is quite delicate, I need your support nevertheless and I want you to act in my name, to prevent the war between Buddhists and Taoists from ever starting.** **I do have an alternative emissary I could send, but that girl doesn't have the right mentality for this task. She is a special kind of "powerful", like yourself, and can definitely end the war on her own, but not in the way I wish for."**

A sigh.

 **"...Nevermind all that actually, I'm well aware of the _real reason_ why you won't accept me. But can you truly not put some effort into it for the sake of Japan?"**

"...The country can burn for all I care. I have resolved to only protect the people I care about, because I can't do anything else for the others on my own. If this war ever threatens to reach my city, I will handle whoever arrives personally. But I will not allow you to turn me into a weapon."

 **"Your home country is going to be razed to the ground. Do you truly not care for it in the slightest?"**

"Do you realize what I am? The world itself is against me, and Japan as a country has done nothing worth of my protection. Whether the nation survives or not, it makes no difference to me. I will protect Kuoh Town and its residents with everything I have if it comes down to it, but that's all you'll get out of me."

 **"Is that your last word?"**

"...Leave me alone, _Yasakatome._ "

The candles' flames were extinguished, and the spartan Japanese bedroom was drowned in the darkness.

Like every other night.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **The goddess I chose for this thing was taken from a certain game franchise, the one I mentioned I was extremely biased towards. Yasakatome is not her real name, however, but merely an alias she gave to Orochi, taken from real life. She is in fact one of the deities of the Suwa Grand Shrine in the Nagano prefecture of Japan in real life. A damn important place for this story, this shrine is. Try to remember it! u.u**

 **Orochi is apparently the victim of a death premonition! Since Arc 3 will obviously have Kokabiel, surely you can guess to some extent what might happen. If it _does_ happen. After all, while on one side we have a pretty strong MC, we also have a Cadre on the other. As Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening says: "Anything can change!".**

 **Meanwhile, the plot for Arc 4 has been revealed! A Holy War! What is this, the Fate series? XD**

 **This war is based once again on a few ideas and characters borrowed from the same franchise "Yasakatome" comes from. In those games, the religious war is merely the worst possible scenario, and never actually happens because the MCs of those games manage to keep the leaders of the two factions in check. I wanted a similar scenario for this story's first original arc, one where Orochi has to stop the factions from engaging each other in battle. Of course, I have no intention to just copy and paste the story behind the threat of this war from that franchise.**

 **I have in fact already detached myself from it, because "Yasakatome" in those games is completely unrelated to the facts due to being part of a third religion which does not wish or care for war. Here in APtF, however, she gets involved, apparently had bonds to the Kamakura family, and needs Orochi's power to solve a situation that concerns her. Even so, she has nothing to offer in exchange to Orochi who doesn't have a true need for more power ( _yet)._**

 **To see how he will intentionally get involved in this war, you'll have to wait for Arc 4 though, I'm afraid. e.e**

 **Speaking of which, I will take my leave of you, for the time being, by giving you the official name for the original Arc 4 of APtF!**

 _ **Youkai War Arc.**_

 **And with this, I'm going into hiatus. I'll try to come back as soon as possible. For now, I want to thank you all for the support you gave me.**

 **Review, review, review. I need to know if the plot points introduced with this prologue have caught your interest, and more reviews just might convince me to give this story my all once again.**

 **Next time, another acquaintance from the past.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon with the beginning of the Excalibur Arc.**

 **Arrivederci! (= Goodbye!)**


	21. Arc 3 Update

**Hello, Vinzelles here.**

 **Just thought I'd give you a quick update on the progression for Arc 3. Sorry, no chapter today! e.e**

 **Currently I'm halfway through the fight against Kokabiel. I've concocted a few new things to differentiate the arc from what you people would be used to. As usual, since I'm trash at transitions, some of the original scenes won't appear, and the arc itself is probably going to end up a little shorter than the previous one.**

 **First of all, since I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan, I'm going to swap one of the main characters of the arc with a certain character appeared a few years ago on the 3DS in the Fates games. I wanted a girl with a bubbly and cheerful personality, without having to deal with a certain person's backstory due to a lack of Issei. Obviously I'm talking about Irina, but the girl subbing in will be a surprise.**

 **After that, I will be applying a bunch of concepts that I've wanted to try out, based on the potential capabilities of a bunch of people including the new girl.**

 **Finally, I'm still deliberating if I should introduce in this arc the person that will induce Orochi's participation in the Youkai War, or wait for the start of the next.**

 **All that said, I should be able to finish writing the arc in 2 weeks, 3 at worst. If I dived nose-first into it I'd be done in a few days but I'm investing some time into GBA hacks of Fire Emblem. Sue me.**

 **I already wrote a bunch this morning, and would even have continued if it wasn't for the fact that I'm stuck at my father's house this afternoon, FeelsBadMan. XD**

 **I saw a review, but I'm currently writing this from my phone and don't have easy access to its contents. Tonight I will edit this chapter and answer it, I promise.**

 **EDIT: Ok, ready to answer now.**

 **Ulysses07: I see your point, but my answer will have to be similar to the one I gave to the last reviewer. It's a struggle for me to put space between the various important events, because I suck in general at establishing how much time should pass in between. Generally I tend to decide on very short periods, such as "3 days" in the Rating Game's case. As a consequence, whenever I introduce new stuff, it inevitably sounds Mary Sue-ish. It is indeed a problem, but it's the kind of problem that I don't know how to address due to my inexperience, so I have to apologize. That said, I'm glad that you like the way I handled Riser and I hope you'll still be around when Arc 3 rolls in. :)**

 **Be patient, oh readers, and I swear I will deliver to the best of my capabilities!**

 **Have a great day, those of you who don't have to deal with rain in July!**


	22. Arc 3 Chapter 1

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been a while, huh? The maximum of 3 weeks of time I had given to myself in order to finish the arc has pretty much passed, so I decided that it was time to finally upload.**

 **The current state of the arc... I'd say it's almost finished. Only the epilogue remains to be written from zero, but everything else before that needs to be revised. This is the first chapter, already revised, of the Excalibur Arc and already I'm going to introduce someone new, as anticipated. Why? Because screw Irina, tbh. No other reason really, and also, sorry to those who like her. Xenovia is a personal favourite though so she stays. e.e**

 **In the timeline five days have passed since the dream sequence I've shown in the teaser, by the way. I'm trying to spread the various chains of events over larger periods of time, because someone correctly pointed out that some of Orochi's newfound powers seem Mary Sue-ish. For those who haven't read that review, I answered by telling that someone that due to my inexperience I was pretty much throwing numbers around in terms of days/weeks/whatever, and since I tended to not overextend, it often sounded like "too little time to make sense", or similar things. So now I'm trying to address that issue in a somewhat acceptable way, although I'm still pretty sure that, as far as the events themselves are concerned, I'm still making everything happen too quickly. The in-between I should be able to handle easily, though.**

 **That's it for now, I believe.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 1 - Exorcists

Two days before the end.

Orochi was just returning home after a walk. Recently he had been out of the house frequently, to ponder in peace what exactly was going to come for his life.

It certainly wasn't that strange Devil woman he had run into earlier that day. She had come out of some basement screaming bloody murder, and as it turned out her form was just as animalistic as her intentions. Her human half was naked, but her other half was that of some sort of four-legged monster, a snake tail on her back. She was carrying two spears with her, and had threatened to kill him and eat him.

Of course, lately Orochi had been particularly sensitive to the topic of his death, and didn't take the threat well. So, after tearing off of her hand one of those lances and cleaving her in two, he decided to go home to relax properly.

He didn't even stop to ponder whether it was fine for him to kill a Devil that looked like an animal. He was so distracted by his impending doom that he had forgotten to hold back and ended up killing her. His mind had refused to acknowledge the weight of his actions, and so he had kept going on his merry way.

Then he got an earful from Anya, who had called him shortly after that strange Devil's death to whine about "him stealing her job". He had no idea what she was talking about and couldn't be bothered to find out with everything that he currently had in mind, AND he didn't want to know who gave her his number, so he hung up on her and turned his cellphone off. Even after all that, he had not realized that he had carelessly taken a life.

As he closed in on the house he had been sharing with his adoptive mother and sister along with a Fallen Angel, he could hear arguing from a distance.

"I already told you I'm sure of it, Xenovia! It's definitely here!"

"And I told you I don't sense any Fallen Angels in there. Not right now, at the very least, despite the traces they've left. And even if there was, that isn't our main concern right now. Do I really need to remind you of that?"

"B-But, as members of the Church we have a duty to purify evil beings no matter what! Like you said, there are still traces of one of them here, and while he or she may not be here right now, this house is still worth investigating-"

 _"I think I heard "Church" just now."_

The two girls, clad in dark robes, stopped their arguing. Someone was behind them, and it didn't seem like a Fallen Angel by presence alone. Yet, the tone in the person's voice was anything but friendly.

 _"I don't know what you two want but I suggest you leave my property. I don't care much for religion, I've been in a bad mood for days and I might snap at any given moment."_

Despite the menacing tone, of course, they didn't sense any particular signature coming from the owner of the voice, aside from traces of magic. Both girls immediately reached the same conclusion: whoever was talking had been brainwashed by the Fallen into keeping away people like them, and said person was not powerless. So, with new resolve, they turned around.

"I apologize in advance for the harsh treatment you're going to receive, but it's for your own good!" claimed the blue haired girl, while putting her hand on the handle of the object on her back.

"We shall purify your mind from the evil thoughts of the person that plagues it-"

The other girl however had suddenly a flash of recognition on her face. The same went for the boy in front of her, who then sighed, facepalmed and started speaking in an exasperated tone, as if to say "why do I have to deal with this".

"...You better have a good explanation, Soleil. You know what I think about religions in general."

"B-B-B-B-B-B-BOSS?!"

"The one and only. So, what's this I hear about you being a member of the Church?"

"Waitwaitwait, I can explain, so please don't get mad Boss! No, more importantly, why are you here in the first place?!"

"I live here, you fool! Weren't you listening? Stop asking stupid questions and answer meeeeeee!"

"Waaaaaaaaahhh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please stop it huuuuuuuuuuuurts!"

Xenovia, the girl with completely blue hair aside from a single strand of green, had been watching silently, stunned by the fact that her companion knew the person in front of them, and by the fact she had been put in a headlock, her head being nudged fiercely by said person.

The victim of Orochi's merciless assault had wild and unkempt pink hair and a white headband, and panic was written on her face.

"...I'm sorry but I don't get what's going on." said Xenovia dumbfoundedly.

"Easy." Orochi started explaining while putting a finger on Soleil's forehead and drilling forcefully. "This little runt gave me a lot of trouble whenever she showed up in the past, and just by popping up here of all places she's doing it again, so I'm giving her what for."

"It wasn't my fault, please have mercyyyyyyyyy!"

The boy clicked his tongue and released his hold on her. Soleil immediately proceeded to massage her head, muttering something along the lines of "why is Boss mad, I couldn't help it back then."

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"...Um, I ran away from home, shortly after hearing that Boss had disappeared. I believe that the Goenitz household is still convinced that you're dead, and I swear I didn't know where you ended up so please don't be mad."

"...I don't get how you traveled from France to Japan on your own, but fine. What about the Church then?"

"They have taken me in in my moment of need. In exchange I'm working for them as an exorcist."

"Soleeeeeeeeiiiiiilllllll..."

"B-Boss, I know you don't agree, but I have to show my gratitude to the Lord for granting me the chance of experiencing a new and more fulfilling life!"

It seemed to Xenovia that Soleil knew exactly how to word her sentences to avoid angering the boy, because he became somewhat calm immediately after hearing all that; specifically, he seemed to settle only once he heard the words "fulfilling life".

"...Well, I suppose I should start behaving like a proper host then, since there's no need to get violent. Come in, I have some tea for you two."

Xenovia tried to object. "Ah, please don't worry about it-"

 _"Come in."_

It sounded like an order, and Soleil seemed to have already surrendered.

"Let's just go in, Xenovia. Trust me when I say that Boss has his own concerns and won't let us leave until I soothe them."

* * *

"So, why do the two of you know each other?" inquired Xenovia, a steaming cup of black tea in her hands.

"Well, back when I was living in the Nagano Prefecture with my actual family, Soleil's father would come over occasionally all the way from France to talk business with my old man. They're great friends, those two, so I was often asked, or rather _ordered,_ to babysit an overzealous and obnoxiously loud little Soleil as a favour to her dad. Technically all I had to do was to keep her away from... certain people, but it has definitely been one of my most tedious chores in the past, due to her making it difficult."

"You can't blame me for that! I didn't know any better back then!" whined Soleil.

She was referring to the blissful lack of knowledge about the Sect she had in the past, and the fact that Orochi had to keep the little girl of his same age away from his mother or from the cultists that visited her occasionally. That agreement was in fact kept hidden from the woman, and was purely the result of Soleil's father asking a favour to Orochi's. The young girl back then couldn't be left alone for reasons not properly explained to the boy, and so he was forced to keep her company during his father's meetings.

"A certain something?"

"Sorry, can't go into detail on that one. It's personal."

"...Right. In that case, what are you doing here? In a house that has traces of Fallen Angels?"

"I ran away from the prefecture myself, after a certain incident." explained Orochi. "I ended up in an orphanage in Kuoh Town, and I've recently been adopted by the Eisenwald family due to difficult circumstances on my end. As for the Fallen, well, there is one living with us, but she's not a threat."

"How do you know that? I hate to say this, but for all you know she might have brainwashed you all."

"A fair question... I think. And my answer is "because she's weaker than me". Of course it's up to you whether to believe me or not."

"I don't believe you." said Xenovia.

"I can't believe you, Boss." said Soleil.

"That's too bad, because I really don't care." rebuked Orochi.

"..." "..."

"Soleil. Are you aware now of how I spent my days in the Goenitz household?"

"...Yes. It must have been horrible, to go through all that effort to find out that nothing came out of you." answered the pink-haired girl.

"Hm." acknowledged Orochi gravely. "I had decided to put it all behind me, but as it turns out, _something did emerge eventually._ "

"EEEEEH?! For real?! But how is that possible?!"

"I don't know actually. I believe it has something to do with Mother, but honestly I have no intention of finding out right now. _Not until I become a match for her, that is._ "

Orochi had started practicing magic shortly after being released from the Underworld hospital, after being briefly taught by Anya the method to generate an artificial magic core. In particular, he was trying out several of the spells that his mother Annabelle had tried to teach back when he was, for some reason, physically unable to create a core. Even now it was a pain in the ass, because inevitably said core would always clash with Heaven's Gate. Every time he used his Abnormality actively in any way, shape or form, the core he had built would collapse, he wouldn't be able to cast anything from then on, and as such he would have to spend time recreating it. Luckily the Gate's passive form didn't interfere at all, which meant that the property of "building shock resistance" was still easily usable. However, techniques such as **Abprall,** which required him to open the Gate, would definitely rob him of the ability to use spells until he recreated the core.

As expected, the Brand forced him into learning wind magic, because nothing else would have worked even if he tried. Also, the Brand was seemingly not affected by the opening of the Gate for some reason. Nina had speculated that the protective seal he had on his body was so radicated in his being that even the Gate couldn't break its hold, which was fair enough considering he had the damn tattoo printed on him while he was still a fetus. It was probably within his mother's calculations, he had conceded that much.

However, in exchange for only being able to use wind magic, incantations were somehow _completely unneeded,_ a fact that baffled him to a ridiculous degree. It had to be reiterated due to the sheer absurdness of such a statement: they were not required at all. Even his mother had to chant when casting! But he didn't need to. He only had to memorize the shape of the corresponding magic circles.

He had found this out the hard way when he tried to cast one of the most powerful spells he had learned in his time at the Goenitz household. He had drawn the circle on the sand while he was training with Raynare in the desert in Egypt, simply to show her that he truly knew some powerful magic attacks since she was skeptical about it all, and merely declared the name of the spell in a lighthearted way, not expecting it to work. The poor Fallen woke up after several hours in her bed in the middle of the night, and loudly demanded explanations from him.

That night was not a pleasant one for the boy.

"Ooooh, so you've finally managed to learn magic like Annabelle-sama? Good for you Boss."

"Ugh, I hate the fact that you made that comparison but I guess I can't exactly deny it. Mother's spells are all I'll ever be able to reproduce anyway."

"?"

"Nevermind. What about you two? Soleil certainly wouldn't come here without reason if she didn't know I was in Kuoh Town."

"We're on a mission." answered briefly Xenovia. "I can't say much more to uninvolved people though."

"Does it have something to do with the Devils?"

"...So you know that much. No, it does not. In fact, our intention was to head over to the supervisor of this territory in order to ask her not to interfere with our work, but then Soleil here got distracted by something unrelated."

"Sounds like her, alright."

"I'm still here you know?!" shouted Soleil.

""So what?"" echoed Orochi and Xenovia.

"Uuuuuuuu, I'm being bullied even by Xenovia..."

"Anyway, are you absolutely sure that the Fallen isn't a threat? Where even is she?" inquired Xenovia.

"Working. Apparently she didn't want to spend all her free time training with me, and she didn't want to sit around all day either, so she went and found a small part-time job at an antique shop close to here. And I'm completely sure that she isn't a threat. Hell, sometimes she even goes out of her way and plays with my adoptive little sister."

"...Did she brainwash the store owner?"

"No idea, I never visited the place. And why do your explanations for things you don't comprehend default to brainwashing?"

"You would be surprised at how often we've had to deal with hypnotized humans in our line of work."

Orochi sighed. "Why am I even trying to question an exorcist... Whatever."

He looked outside the window.

"Hm, it's pretty late, so I don't think you'll find the Devils at the academy right now. At this point I suggest you wait until tomorrow. Is this thing you have to do urgent, Soleil?"

"...Fairly urgent, but not unbearably so just yet, I'd say. I suppose we can wait a day before meeting the Devils?" asked Soleil to Xenovia.

"I suppose we have to at this point. Thank you for your hospitality, Kamakura Orochi."

"Don't mention it. If anything, I should be thanking you for taking care of Soleil all this time. I'm sure it's a handful to keep her under control."

"Could you please stop demeaning me, Boss? I may be part of the Church, but as a woman I will still feel offended by that, you know?!"

"Whatever, not interested. Get going now, don't hold back on my account."

"Why are you pushing me out of the door? Boss?! BOOOOOSSSSSSS!"

Orochi closed the door behind the two flabbergasted exorcists, and slid down on it. While he wasn't looking at anything in particular, his glare was powerful.

'Those things on their backs... I have a bad feeling about this.'

He knew he was being paranoid, but the words of the goddess could not leave his mind no matter how hard he struggled.

He was supposedly going to die in three days. Coincidentally, an old acquaintance of his had made her appearance as an exorcist, claiming to be on a mission of some sort. Whatever that mission was, it wasn't his business. But he had already realized that he probably wasn't going to ignore that matter.

People didn't die without a reason. His premature departure at that point could only be associated with whatever that mission was. Nothing else could hold that much power over him, for obvious reasons.

'Whoever will end up killing me will surely kill those two as well. In other words, they are not strong enough to complete that mission, so if I leave them alone even more people will die.'

He got up and clenched his fists.

'However, if I do participate in the next big battle, even if I end up croaking, there's a small chance. At the cost of my life, I might be able to defeat this unknown opponent. Yasakatome has not been very specific about the circumstances of my demise after all.'

A determined look appeared on his face.

'Even in death, I swear I will win!'

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **There she is, Irina's substitute! As I said before, Soleil is from the Fire Emblem franchise. It you want to know exactly how she's supposed to look like, then Google is your friend. Although Google might spoil some of her character's traits, so you... might want to avoid that. I have plans for her, many many plans! *proceeds to laugh maniacally for no valid reason***

 **As for Orochi, I'm having him practice the spells he has learned during his reclusion in the Goenitz household in his free time (or in other words, whenever he trains with Raynare, which is every day lol. Also, this makes sense because he is unable to forget those lessons despite all the time that has gone by, due to how his brain works), mostly off-screen for now since he will show what he can pull off a little later.**

 **I briefly mentioned Raynare working part-time. It doesn't seem relevant, and it isn't... for now. I'll give a few more details about her circumstances in the next chapter which will start from her point of view. Maybe I'll even throw a short filler chapter regarding that job once I'm done writing Arc 3, but I have yet to decide.**

 **Finally, the most important plot point of Arc 3. Orochi, as you might have noticed, is already losing his grip. He has killed someone: it was just a Stray Devil this time (that was a shoutout to Viser btw, since she didn't appear in Arc 1), but already his mind is refusing to come to terms with what he did. His paranoia about the death premonition is only one of the reasons behind this behaviour, and we'll explore his brain at a later time, but for now keep in mind the fact that he somehow didn't recognize the act of killing Viser as "taking someone's life". Whether he has glossed over it, he refuses to admit it, or doesn't acknowledge it at all, you'll just have to wait and see to obtain that answer.**

 **In fact, if I wanted, I could rewrite that part with a few more details, but I left the workings of his mind as vague as possible for the time being, which is reflected in how I wrote that part.**

 **And that's all for now, I think. How was this first chapter of Arc 3? Leave a review!**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	23. Arc 3 Chapter 2

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been 6 days since the official start of this arc. Wait, SIX DAYS? As in, less than a week? That's crazy, I didn't feel lazy for once!**

 **In fact, I have just now finished revising this chapter, and having nothing better to do I decided to upload one day early! Again, crazy!**

 **Anyway, today we have one half of a chapter from Raynare's perspective, which will spiritually take the place of that Kiba vs. Freed scene in the anime (and also LN I think. It's been a minute since I read Volume 3 XD). Of course, since I don't remember many details about the anime, it's not exactly the same scene, and it also doesn't act as a trigger for anyone in this fic like it did for Kiba. But you'll see.**

 **The other half will go back to the normal perspective, so expect more Orochi. Not much, but this will change, even if that's actually a talk we should have for next chapter.**

 **By the way, this story has surpassed 50 favorites and is about to reach 70 follows. For the third time in like 2 minutes, that's crazy! Thank you all so much for the support, even though I got no reviews in 6 days. e.e**

 **Really, I would like to talk a little more with you guys. Gotta improve somehow and, between you and me, this arc's first draft is a complete mess. Getting feedback now would help immensely, haha.**

 **That's it for now., so I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 2 - Two Ends Meet

Raynare had just finished her shift at the antique shop Tanzabu, and was walking home with a bored expression.

She had started working there a few days before, but since the shop itself didn't have a lot of customers (not an uncommon occurrence according to her employer), she didn't have much to do there at all. Even so, that job would still occupy her enough to keep herself distracted.

She had complained to Orochi about not wanting to spend her days dreading their training sessions. The boy had conceded that he was working her pretty hard, and that it was in fact preferable for her to find something to pass the time, and suggested that she look for a hobby.

A brief search had led her to that old and stuffy antique shop which was run, strangely enough, by a youkai. Said youkai, who claimed to be an old bakedanuki, assured the Fallen that the goods weren't counterfeited in any way (she didn't believe those words even for a second), and hired her without batting an eyelash, after making her promise to "return the favor one day". (1)

Raynare wasn't sure of what that youkai wanted from her, but didn't pay much mind to it.

As she walked, she was suddenly hit by a strong scent. A familiar one, at that.

Blood.

She turned her head to the dark alleyway on her right side. Sure enough, she could barely make out a body laying on the ground in the shadows. A man in priest garb laid dead in a pool of his own blood.

And a familiar person was standing over the corpse.

"Gahahahaha, if it isn't Raynare-san! It's been suuuuuuch a long time, huh?"

The kind of person that the girl could have gladly done without in her new life.

"...Freed." acknowledged reluctantly Raynare. "I see that you're still missing one or two teeth from that dirty mouth of yours. Doesn't make your ugly mug any prettier, as expected."

"You don't pull any punches, do you?" Briefly after saying those words, a frown appeared on Freed's face. "...Wait, did you say "still"? Meaning that you already knew about me losing them?!"

"I did watch the show. Kamakura did a number on you, and I laughed at the sorry mess you were left in back then."

"Hohoho, now that I know this, I can't let you walk away! Maybe once I'm done killing you I'll finally be able to drill that magnificent body of yours! HAHAHAHA!"

Raynare didn't pay any mind to the former priest's crazy talk, and laid her eyes on his weapon instead.

"...Where did you get _that_?"

"As if I would tell a weak bitch like you! How about you try and force it out of me?"

"Tch, annoying bastard. I'll quickly deal with you, and boast to Kamakura about how I killed you before he could!"

She extended her wings. _She now had three pairs, totaling at six wings._

Seeing that, Freed immediately dropped the sickening smile he had until that moment.

Did Raynare have some sort of explosive growth spurt in the brief time they didn't see each other? Even if she did, displaying six wings _that_ early was impossible for a Fallen, thought Freed. But all that didn't matter, he realized. He knew exactly what those wings' number was implying.

"...Now that I think about it, I might be at a disadvantage. Ta ta, cretin!"

In a panic, he realized he couldn't take on a Fallen that powerful without getting hurt badly, especially considering that he wasn't used to his new toy yet. So, he extracted a flash bomb from his coat, and threw it to the ground, drowning the alleyway in light. He ran past a briefly blinded Raynare, not even realizing in his rush that he could probably have attacked her in her vulnerable state, and disappeared before she could regain her bearings.

Her eyes still itching slightly, Raynare's anger reached new heights for a moment, but she calmed down and clicked her tongue. She retracted her wings and looked at the corpse one last time, deciding to leave it there and go notify Orochi.

"There's no mistake, that was a Holy Sword... How is it possible for Freed of all people to be wielding one of those?"

She wasn't going to get answers easily, she conceded. So she resumed her walk, resolved to warn the boy about the presence of Freed in the town.

* * *

One day before the end.

Afternoon lessons had already ended, and it was now time for club, for those students who were part of one. Anya had been contacted the moment she stepped in her clubroom by the student council president Sona Sitri, another Pillar Devil that was enrolled in Kuoh Academy under the disguise of a human. They had been sharing the responsibility over that territory for some time now, and Anya often mingled with her and her group, be it with a relaxing cup of tea or with a simple game of chess, which Anya would constantly lose due to Sona being just too good of a player.

The girl picked up her phone. "Hello?"

"Anya. There are two exorcists by the school gate, and they're asking for an audience. Do you mind handling it? I'm a bit busy right now."

"...Sure, no problem. But are you sure you don't want to hear them out as well? Might be important."

"I wish I could, but we're drowning in papers here."

Anya smiled wryly. "Haha, I see. Then I'll take care of it."

She hung up and waited for Unryuu and Asia to arrive. When the two girls finally opened the door, Anya warned them immediately.

"Welcome back, you two. No time for contracts today, we have a meeting to attend."

"I-I see... About that, Anya-sama..."

"Hm? Is something the matter?"

Unryuu was suddenly pushed forward.

"You're taking too long, out of the way Unryuu!"

Orochi and Raynare apparently had chosen that exact day to come and mess around in her clubroom. Their visits, albeit short in time for different reasons, were not sporadic in the slightest, and those two would often lounge about in the room, relaxing in their own way. That is to say, Raynare would quietly read a magazine for a little while, then she'd be off to work; Orochi would instead bother Anya herself with a bunch of questions made only to irritate her until he got bored.

Even Asia made way for them, still slightly afraid of the Fallen.

"...This is really not the time, Orochi-kun, we have a meeting to attend."

Anya weakly tried to reason with the boy, but he would have none of it.

"Don't care. We're going to oversee it. I've already met those two so it's fine."

"Eh? What do you mean by that?!"

"One of them is an acquaintance of mine, and that's all you need to know."

"...Can't you just say 'friend'?" deadpanned Anya.

"Only Unryuu is my friend. Everyone else is an associate at best. You done whining?"

"Gh, how harsh. Leaving aside my feelings, I feel bad for that acquaintance for some reason..."

Anya didn't suspect Orochi's unusually intense harshness even for a second.

* * *

"Thank you for your hospitality." said Xenovia, bowing her head to Anya.

"...I swear you always say the same things. I hear that's an unattractive trait to have for a woman."

"W-What?! Tell me you're joking, Kamakura Orochi!"

"It's just a rumor I've heard, don't shake me!"

"You're wasting our time, Boss! Stop teasing her! Don't you have anything better to do than stay here?!"

"Y-You won't keep me away from this, S-Soleil. I don't know what you two intend to d-do, but it's definitely d-dangerous- COULD YOU STOP?!"

Anya sighed at the scene in front of her. The two exorcists, who introduced themselves as Xenovia Quarta and Soleil Bertrand, had come in the ORC clubroom to discuss something, but apparently Orochi had decided to get in the way as he usually did. Raynare however was laying against a wall with arms crossed and eyes closed, as if in deep thought, while completely disregarding the boy's antics.

"...Unryuu, please do something."

"Yes, ma'am."

The boy's white-haired friend walked over to him while he was being held by Xenovia, and punched his head with all her strength, even activating her Adamantite Armor.

He simply fell back to the floor from the impact, as if he had been merely pushed, and wasn't harmed at all. Xenovia and Soleil stood there wondering how in the world could he even survive a blow like that, let alone shrug it off completely, while the boy himself wasn't amused by Unryuu's decision.

"...Oi."

"Don't even start! You are really wasting everyone's time right now! Go sit in the corner with Raynare-san and be quiet!" The girl pointed her finger in Raynare's general direction, who was still ignoring it all.

"...Tch."

Orochi stood up, dusting himself down, and obeyed the order silently.

'I shouldn't be fooling around in the first place. Soleil has information that I'll need in order to survive. What the hell was I doing?' he wondered.

"...Phew, finally. Now that he has settled down we can start."

The boy clearly took offense to that statement, judging by his expression, but Raynare held him back by elbowing his abdomen.

Xenovia also calmed down, and started speaking. "...Thank you. Then let's begin."

She turned fully towards Anya. "We have been sent here because recently some particularly powerful relics have been stolen from several Churches in the world. The Vatican has reason to believe that the perpetrator of the thefts is currently hiding in this city."

Raynare opened an eye hearing that, and stared at the weapon on the blue-haired exorcist's back.

"We merely came here to ask the Devils in this city to not interfere with our research." continued Xenovia. "It is of extreme importance that this matter be settled by the Church itself, we can't have the Devils clean up our messes for us."

"Hm, fair enough." conceded Anya. "However, you're going to have to tell me a little more than that. I don't know what I should stay away from after all, and with some luck I might be able to keep Orochi-kun away as well, so that you can work without distractions."

A loud stomp was heard. Everyone ignored it.

"...It can't be helped." Soleil sighed, and proceeded to extract her weapon. She unraveled the string that was tied around one of her arms, which then shined brightly and transformed into a golden two-handed katana. Ignoring the briefly alarmed looks of Anya's peerage, she started explaining.

"This is Excalibur. Or more precisely, Excalibur Mimic, which is one of seven fragments of the true Excalibur. The relics Xenovia just told you about are other fragments of that same legendary holy sword, and just like she said they have been stolen from various churches and brought in this town of all places. Do you understand now, Anya Adramelech?"

Anya ignored the slightly rude tone in her question and answered. "I understand. Although I can't speak in Sona's stead, I promise my group won't interfere with your work."

"Speak for yourself."

"Shut up, Kamakura. Remember why we're here in the first place."

Those whispers could be heard from the corner of the room.

Soleil heard Orochi's words and sighed. She thought that hopefully he wouldn't be able to track them down while they hunted the thief, completely unaware that Orochi already had a lead while they didn't.

"Well, I think that's all there is to be said. Now we have to speak to the other Devil though."

"Right... the problem with that is, Sona is very busy with both schoolwork and other burocracy coming from our work as supervisors of this area, and cannot meet you right now." answered Anya, sweatdropping.

"Aaaah, that's a bit annoying. We'll have to wait another day now. Should we just go then, Xenovia?"

"Hm, let's. But before that..."

It seemed Xenovia still had something to address. She turned her attention to Asia, who jumped in fright at her gaze.

"I thought I was imagining things at first, but... Aren't you the Holy Maiden? Or rather, you were."

"A-Ah, y-yes..."

"Hmph. To think someone of your stature has become a Devil. The definition for people like you... I believe it is "heretic", wouldn't you agree Soleil?"

"Oh, you're not wrong there. But why did the Holy Maiden turn her back on the Lord? Do you not believe in Him any longer? You don't, right? It would be impossible for a Devil-"

She suddenly realized her mistake, and put her hands over her mouth while looking at the only non-believing human in the room.

Sure enough, Orochi had noticed Asia's downcast expression. He seemed furious, and was barely restraining himself at that point.

He looked like he was only waiting for an excuse to deliver his punishment.

Xenovia, sadly, didn't notice.

"If that is the case, now that you're officially a witch it would be fine to exorcise you, yes?"

She put a hand on the handle of her sword. _But her wrist was locked in an iron grip before she could extract it._

Orochi, having reached his limit, had appeared at her side out of nowhere and prevented her from pointing a weapon at the "heretic".

"You overstepped. Apologize."

"...What do you think you're-"

 **"Now."**

His grip strengthened tenfold.

"Y-You-GHHH!"

It became even stronger. Her wrist was about to break.

"Oi, stop it. You went in too early." said Raynare calmly.

Orochi's glare did not diminish in power, but Xenovia's wrist was freed from the painful clutch of his hand.

As she nursed her hand and glared back at the boy, he started speaking.

"It seems that the idea of "pecking order" in your head is all messed up. It's high time someone taught you a little respect. Raynare, are you with me?"

Everything had gone according to the plan the two of them had concocted. Orochi intended to exploit any kind of misstep the exorcists would make, and coerce them into a fight, during which Raynare would take the chance to try negotiating with Soleil. The girl pondered briefly on how forceful Orochi had been in carrying out the plan, but didn't think too hard about it.

"Obviously. I'll be taking her." The Fallen pointed her thumb at Soleil.

"Eh?"

As usual, the pink-haired girl was a little slower on the uptake than she should have been.

And as usual, Orochi didn't pay any attention to that little detail.

"Good. Follow me quietly, all of you. Try to object and I'll crush you where you stand."

By that moment everyone in the room was well aware that it was unwise to cross an angry Orochi, so they obeyed silently.

...Even if him threatening people was a bit unusual.

* * *

 **(1): This youkai is described very vaguely on purpose. A bakedanuki is a "raccoon monster" by the way: little critters who like to cast illusions to play pranks on people, and are said to have HUGE nutsacks. No joke. Also, "Tanzabu" is a reference so obscure that, while most of you won't get it now, those who have similar tastes to mine might have an epiphany and understand immediately who the youkai is. Here's a hint: this shop exists in a fan-game of that "certain game franchise I'm biased towards", and said fan-game has been on Playstation 4 since... well, it has been a thing for four years in Japan, and only on Windows at first, but it obtained an English port in March 2017, and a version for Nintendo Switch was confirmed for this year. Those who know who the youkai is, don't spoil please.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **Before you start shouting, yes, I know, Raynare's huge power-up doesn't sound right at all. But there's a reason behind it, which will be explored at a later date. I really hope you guys are used to reading my highlighted ramblings, I'd hate to receive a review that says I'm being garbage when I'm promising it will make sense eventually.**

 **Freed flees immediately here instead of fighting. Hey, even madmen should know when to fold if presented with an impossible situation, or at least that's what I want to believe is true for people like Freed. No offense.**

 **The meeting goes down in more or less the same way, up until the moment Asia is threatened. In this moment, and in some others earlier than that, Orochi displays once more a ruthlessness more intense than what should be allowed. It's subtle for now, so the rest of the cast doesn't ask questions, or doesn't notice at all, but it will eventually escalate. Or at least I'm going to try to make it look that way.**

 **See, this is an example of what I meant when I said the draft was a mess. This plot point (Orochi's increasing paranoia causing him to "hold back" less than usual) was too good to pass up, but it came out weakly in the draft, and only towards the end of the arc, so now I'm trying to drop hints as I revise chapters. Hopefully it won't end up being a waste of effort and time.**

 **I think we're done for today. Next chapter will be a little harder to revise, since it's a battle scene. I might have to rewrite some parts from zero, but I was already resigned to having to do that some time down the line.**

 **Do review if you can. Prevent a disaster and talk to me! XD**

 **Next time, the tag battle. Although the "tag" part won't hold for long.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	24. Arc 3 Chapter 3

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **It's been 10 days, but this time I wasn't being lazy, I swear! I've been revising this chapter (twice in fact) and a few others, and it's actually a lot of effort when the draft is as messy as I said it was.**

 **Only one review in the meantime, which wasn't anything special (thank you for writing it nonetheless, Ulysses07) since it just said something like "No grammar errors and the story is good. Keep it up!". Not with those exact words, but something along those lines.**

 **In these 10 days, I also had the chance to see what exactly would happen if I removed from the synopsis my warnings about the content. And what do you know? I got more favs and follows than I usually get when I upload a chapter! Of course, my warnings are technically still one click (or tap for mobile users) away, but it just goes to show that initial appearances are a pretty big deal when writing a story.**

 **What else? Ah, right. I'm gonna be a bit busy for the next few weeks, so I might have to keep uploading erratically for a little while. But it's no big deal. I mean, I only have to do revisions, right?**

 **Wrong! I actually also started writing Arc 4! As you might recall, it's the first original arc. No bases at all for the writing, aside from the ideas I had for the arc itself. It's... a thing. A bit hard, in fact, but I can keep going once I have more free time again.**

 **For now, we have the brief battle between Xenovia and Soleil, and Orochi and Raynare.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 3 - Forced Alliance

The group followed Orochi and Raynare outside the old building and through the backyard, which happened to have a wide open space, undoubtedly well suited to do battle.

Fed up with Xenovia's unfair insults towards Asia, Orochi had coerced the exorcists into fighting against him and the Fallen girl.

However, it almost seemed as if the two of them had something else to say to the exorcists, and were using a duel of all things as an excuse to express their thoughts.

It was going to be a longer afternoon than Anya had anticipated.

"Asia, are you okay?" she whispered to her servant.

"S-Somewhat, Buchou-san..."

"Despite the fact that he went too far," spoke quietly Unryuu, "He kinda one-upped me on the duel idea. Had he not done it, I would have. Don't mind their words, Asia-chan."

The former nun smiled at her. "Thank you, Unryuu-san."

Some meters ahead, Xenovia and Soleil were discussing what had just happened.

"Damn him, my wrist still hurts. He won't get away with this even if he's your friend, Soleil."

"Don't drag me into your quarrel, at least I realized in time what I was doing, unlike you. Be grateful Boss is giving you a chance, his physical strength has increased immensely from when we were kids, and his former shortcomings in other fields are not a thing anymore apparently. Be on your guard while you fight him."

At the head of the group, Raynare was rehearsing the plan she and Orochi had concocted.

"Are you certain she can be reasoned with? You told me she's an hopeless airhead."

"The moment you tell her about Freed, she'll be all ears. Soleil is surprisingly diligent when she uses her brain."

"What about the other?"

"I said I was going to teach her a lesson, and I plan to do exactly that. But I'll go easy on her, harming her severely will stir up all sorts of trouble. You can just worry about telling Soleil what you know, and we'll go from there. For now I'll lead Xenovia away, so that you can talk freely. I'll leave the rest to you."

"...Understood."

* * *

The group finally reached the garden. Orochi, Raynare and the exorcists took their positions.

"Hey Anya!" He started shouting. "Put up a barrier! I need to be able to fight properly!"

"Screw you! Why don't _you_ do it?! You created this mess in the first place!" was the answer from the sidelines where the Devils settled to watch the fight.

"Tch, should have seen that coming."

With a resigned look on his face, he pointed two fingers at eight o'clock behind him with his arm. An orb of wind started gathering several meters away in the spot he indicated. He then brusquely bended his arm at eleven o'clock, and the orb suddenly bursted.

 ***BANG** *

It produced a shockwave that tore into the ground, tracing a line that separated him and Xenovia from Raynare and Soleil.

 **"Totentanz."** (1)

The wind gathered in the opening in the ground, and multiple tornadoes spurted from the fissure, forming a barrier of solid, body-shredding wind _._

The **Himmelskugel** was Orochi's base for most of the spells he had memorized. It was merely a mass of compressed air that blew wildly within a restricted spherical space, but it was particularly versatile due to how he was able to control how the winds within the "orb" would blow. He could generate it some space away from his body, or around his hands and feet as an enchantment of sorts. The latter use was in fact what he had decided to favour when he decided on what to implement in his fighting style. (2)

Just then, he had set free the winds within the orb and had forced them all in one direction. Specifically, the order he gave was for them to carve into the ground in a straight line and have them emerge and dive in succession within the fissure created, in a cycle that would make them operate as a barrier within the Totentanz spell.

"Forcing me to spend magic power on a stupid barrier before a fight, damn that Anya..." grumbled Orochi.

"So, you truly are capable of casting spells. I suppose I'll have to heed Soleil's advice and be on my guard. But I suggest you do the same with me!"

Xenovia, having said that, removed the cloth from her weapon. It was a huge two-handed sword with a long grip and a cross in the pommel. Its guard was shaped in the form of an axe, and the enormous maroon blade with 3 tips radiated immense power.

"This is Excalibur Destruction! Like the name implies, this blade contains enough destructive power to shatter anything it comes into contact with! I don't know how strong you really are, but you are no match for this sword!"

"...Indeed, it seems like I will be in a lot of pain if that thing ever collides with my body." admitted Orochi without shame. "Thankfully I don't plan to ever let it touch me."

The boy raised an arm and pointed at Xenovia with a single finger.

"Let us begin then. **Heilig Pfeil.** " (3)

Xenovia couldn't even begin to react.

She heard a whistle. _Something_ flew past her, grazing her cheek, and exploded behind her.

 ***BOOM***

Feeling the resulting shockwave lightly hitting her back, the girl started to tremble in response.

'W-What in the world was that?! I couldn't see it at all!' she thought.

"You seem surprised. Ever heard of an air gun? ...Who am I kidding, you probably haven't. I know how people of your kind behave. Completely self-absorbed and lost in your little bright world."

Orochi bowed formally at Xenovia like a butler would, as if to mock her.

"In that case, allow me to show you just how wide the world truly is." (4)

* * *

"Whoa! That was dangerous?!"

"Goodness, he's already trying to crush her will to fight."

"Y-You... He... Bah, I don't get it at all!"

Having witnessed what looked like an invisible attack exploding behind her partner, Soleil was baffled to say the least.

Was Orochi's mother truly capable of such things, after all? He had told her that he had learned from her, and was only able to reproduce spells that _she_ could perform. An attack that couldn't be seen sounded incredibly convenient, however; in fact, it sounded like the perfect spell for an assassin.

Fortunately Orochi had decided to not hit Xenovia directly, and merely used it as a warning shot.

Quickly deciding that Xenovia was getting what was coming to her, Soleil put her train of thought back on track.

"Say, do we really have to do battle? I kinda like you, you know?"

"...I'm sorry, what?"

"Ah, I guess Boss didn't tell you. I'm bisexual."

"SO YOU'RE ACTUALLY HITTING ON ME?! Is that orientation even allowed in the Vatican?! Kamakura wasn't joking, you really can be a pain in the ass!"

Raynare was quickly realizing that talking to Soleil about a serious topic was going to become harder than they had predicted, and was already losing her patience.

"Might as well." answered the human girl, completely unbothered by the Fallen's shock. "You don't really seem like a bad person, and Boss trusts you enough to pit you against me."

"Errr, no, that was our plan in the first place." deadpanned Raynare. "While the blockheads fight, I'm supposed to give you a lead for finding the thief."

"Eh? You mean you know something? Why didn't you say anything earlier?!"

"Because Kamakura doesn't want to leave this matter alone, for reasons he refuses to explain to me." said Raynare wearily. "He's being paranoid, which means this is important business to him. So here's the deal: I'll tell you what I know, and you let me and Kamakura help you two out in return."

"W-Well, I'm not sure if I can make that kind of call on my own." said a flustered Soleil. "While you might not be Devils, it isn't any better if you, a Fallen, jumps into the fray."

"Missy. Even if you say no _he_ will tag along, or most likely force both of you into submission before going off on his own in the worst case scenario. You're going to need someone that can keep him in check, because I can guarantee you that the Devils are already unable to do so."

"Are _you_ able to do so?"

"...Somewhat. Better than nothing though, yes?"

Soleil pondered briefly the matter at hand, before sighing. Despite the fact that she still looked skeptical in Raynare's eyes, at least she seemed to know better than to question Orochi's forcefulness in what looked like a time of emergency for the two exorcists.

"Screw it, I know better than to think we'll actually be able to get rid of him. I'll talk to Xenovia after this."

"Good. Then I'll start by telling you that just yesterday I've walked into an old acquaintance of mine. A total creep, that Freed Sellzen. He had already murdered some priest when I noticed him, and he held what I believe was an Excalibur fragment."

A flash of recognition appeared on Soleil's face.

"...He has been excommunicated a long time ago due to his brutal methods and loose tongue. ...So now he's associated with that person."

"What person?"

"The thief, we actually already know who it is. We simply didn't know the size of his forces."

"Ah, that's how it is. I was almost afraid that you had no information at all. Who is it then?"

 _"The Fallen Angel Kokabiel."_

"...You're fucking with me."

"Sadly, I am not. He has apparently already defected from the Grigori."

Raynare facepalmed at that piece of information.

"SHIT! Are we actually going to fight a fucking Cadre?! I have to tell Kamakura after this, although I doubt he will change his mind."

"...After this?"

"Yeah. You're fighting me now."

"EEEEEH?! BUT I DON'T WANT TO! I'M IN LOVE!"

"STOP SAYING THAT!"

Raynare was finally too fed up to consider holding back. She unfolded her six wings and prepared a spear of light in her right hand. Instead of having the usual pink hue, it was completely transparent.

"You're good research material, Soleil-san! I have calculated that this spear of mine should barely be able to match that Excalibur fragment of yours, and if I have to confront Freed again I shouldn't let this chance go to waste!"

"WAAAAAAAAHHH, YOU'RE MEAN RAY-CHAAAAAAN!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAAAAAAT!"

A spear of pure light and an Excalibur fragment clashed in a blinding flash.

* * *

The boy had fired _something invisible_ towards her, and missed on purpose.

So Xenovia had started running. She had decided that fighting in an area that was too open would end in Orochi's complete victory, so she took her distance and dived between the trees while Orochi was leisurely chasing her in a light jog. All the while, the white-haired boy was taunting her from afar.

"What's wrong, Xenoviaaaa? Is this all that your big words from earlier amount toooo?"

The Brand reacted. Someone had just dived behind the tree to Orochi's left, which was promptly slashed in half a split second later. Xenovia passed through the falling halves of the poor plant, and made an upper slash towards Orochi.

He didn't even seem fazed.

He disappeared before the blade could touch him. However Xenovia was prepared: her instinct had always been one of her best friends in her line of work, and it had already warned of incoming danger from her blind spot. She used her own momentum to spin around and try to drive Excalibur Destruction's blade straight into Orochi, however he was ready and waiting. He had enchanted his left fist with a **Himmelskugel,** and was throwing a punch at her after using Gespenst to get behind her.

The fist surrounded by compressed air and the blade collided, creating a powerful shockwave that shook the trees with tremendous vigor.

"Hah! Not bad, but you're never going to survive like this!"

Orochi broke the stalemate by forcing the blade to the side, stepped forward and raised his other arm and prepared to perform what looked like a palm strike.

 **"Vakuumwelle!"** (5)

Which promptly landed on Xenovia's abdomen, robbing her of all breath.

That wasn't exactly a complicated spell by any stretch of the imagination, but rather a combination of wind magic, martial arts and physics laws. It was a variation of the Himmelskugel that only generated a mass of compressed air on the palm of the user, rather than around the entire hand like the normal spell. That mass would then be pressed onto the opponent's respiratory system, any one organ of choice in that system, and the winds would explode and collide with the body in order to force out of it all the oxygen they had accumulated through the simple involuntary act of breathing.

Xenovia had been struck in the diaphragm, an all-time favourite sweet spot for Orochi to hit when he fought. She was pushed back, and immediately kneeled on the grass, her breath harsh as she tried to get back up by using her sword as a pivot.

She couldn't defend at all. Not only was Orochi too fast for her, but his sheer physical strength was more than a match even for Excalibur Destruction, and he only needed to parry her blows in order to strike back without fearing retaliation, what with her being too busy trying not to be torn to shreds by his enhanced punches.

Not even _that_ would help her against him, who was an opponent that couldn't be defeated in a contest of strength.

Picking herself up quickly, Xenovia charged again and swinged at Orochi's head.

In response, he simply put an enchanted hand in the blade's way, straightening his palm so that it looked like he was going to meet the sword with the tip of his fingers.

Except it didn't. The Excalibur fragment suddenly slid out of the way, cutting only through the edges of the orb of wind surrounding the boy's hand. The tip of the blade ended up colliding with the ground after being somehow deviated from its original course, and opened huge cracks even after Xenovia made an effort to restrain the sword's destructive force as it hit the earth below her feet.

She clicked her tongue. It looked like Orochi had already found her weak point: Excalibur Destruction was indeed capable of immense destruction, but that would only happen if it actually hit anything. All he had to do was to force the blade's course away from his body by compressing the air within the spheres, to the point where they had the consistence of solid objects despite not actually counting as solid.

Destruction's power could not be applied to mere air, no matter how compressed it was.

"You're dead."

Alarmed by that statement, she brusquely shifted her head sideways to look at the boy. He wasn't doing anything in particular though, merely staring at her form.

"If I was anyone else, you would have been killed right now. Do you realize that?"

"Tch. Damn you..."

"Cursing me won't help you. Stand up and keep fighting, at least you're not wasting your breath that way."

She swung at his abdomen, but the boy was already gone.

A foot dug into the back of her knee, making her lose balance again.

Orochi was at her side, and had already put a hand over her face. He then slammed her head into the ground with as much restraint as he could muster.

 _Which wasn't much at all._

He had easily eluded her elevated sixth sense by simply outspeeding her reflexes.

While the boy rose from his half-kneeling position and observed the surprisingly still conscious exorcist (albeit barely), he couldn't help but think of something dreadful.

'They're not that strong despite having Holy Swords. We're going to have a problem.'

If that was what he had to work with, his death would really become inevitable.

* * *

Meanwhile, the clash between Raynare and Soleil continued.

Sparks had been flying around for a little while already. While Raynare's physical prowess was superior to Soleil's, the human had made good use of her weapon.

Several clones of the pink-haired exorcist wielding various different weapons, most likely the result of Excalibur Mimic's ability, had been constantly encircling the Fallen Angel in order to wear her down.

It didn't really work as well as the human girl had hoped. Raynare had had no trouble overpowering and destroying a bunch of clones, so the ones that were still standing weren't really much of a threat.

"I told you to face me! Come out, Soleiiiiiiilll!"

The Fallen charged through, her pure-light spear blowing away a clone with every swing.

She was somewhat able to tell what she had in front of her eyes fortunately. The clones were very realistic, but lacked _presence and weight._ Their existences were frail, and the same could be said for their weapons, even if their bodies were solid, and as such Raynare was able to smash them apart, unafraid of hitting the real one by mistake.

The winged girl felt a presence heavier than the rest behind her back. She stopped her flight and propelled herself backwards suddenly. And as she turned around, she saw a golden katana approaching her abdomen. Intending to swat it out of the way, Raynare made a wide swing with her spear.

The sword started bending, and literally _slithered_ around the light spear before stretching towards her neck.

However, Raynare was prepared. While she held her spear in her right hand, the three wings in her left side suddenly hovered and bended over her free arm. She then bended her now covered arm to form a shield of sorts, and created countless Fragments from the surface of her black feathers before putting her arm in front of her to parry the blow.

This was a technique she had developed very recently, called the **Void Shield,** due to its appearance. Since it was made out of her wings, this shield was very easily pierced by a thrusting attack. Stabbing the weapon of choice into the gaps between the appendices would be enough, from her opponent's point of view. However, that was intended: an opponent that expects some level of resistance to their blows, and _doesn't encounter any,_ would surely be caught off guard when they see their weapon vanish into Raynare's personal space, and realize their momentum has betrayed them.

There was, of course, the matter of slashing attacks, since she was nowhere near strong enough to parry them with her wings.

To address this problem, she decided to take a page out of Orochi's book, and employ a subtle tactic of her own: she simply forced a great number of Fragments to sprout from her feathers, forming a spiky shield. She even made sure that they would shine with an intermittent light, as if to intentionally suggest that they were explosive.

No person in the world would ever be brave enough to do a slashing attack, fearing that the Fragments would explode in their face on contact, so the only way to get through semi-safely was a thrust, which would however leave them vulnerable. In other words, she was putting up a psychological barrier, to manipulate her opponent's actions the way she desired. Unable to force themselves to slash, they would make a thrust, and plunge their own bodies straight into the Fragments.

And in appearance, it almost looked like a black hole in the process of absorbing light, hence the name.

As expected, the blade slid into a gap between her wings, but at that point Raynare knew. While Soleil's vision was limited by her wings as she charged into her space, the girl wouldn't dare to bend her blade further, afraid of actually hurting her opponent. The Fallen dispelled both her spear and her Fragments, allowed the blade to sail close to her chin, retracted her wings carefully but quickly to avoid Mimic's blade and delivered a mean punch to the human's stomach with her free right hand.

"Ghh!"

"Decent, but you can do better."

The clones around the two girls vanished. As Soleil kneeled to the ground, she raised weakly her own free hand and made a stop sign, signalling that she was giving up.

"Haaa... Haaa... W-Why did it end up like t-this... _I am never this unlucky..._ "

"Come on, get up. Against Kamakura, I'd never dare to whine about an unwanted fight if I were you."

"Haven't you d-done the exact same thing to get away f-from his training? You know, that job at the antique shop..."

Raynare was suddenly flustered.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? And I didn't run away from training! I'm still sparring with him every day! I just wanted to find a place where I didn't have to think about it for some time!"

"S-sorry... I was just teasing you... Hehehe..."

"Hey, you done there?"

That voice could be heard from across the field. The air barrier lifted by Orochi was gradually disappearing, and on the other side the boy, completely unharmed, could be seen emerging from the woods, carrying Xenovia over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he walked over to the girls.

"P-Put me down this instant!" yelled Xenovia, who was so dazed that even her voice was betraying her current state.

"Shut it, you're so off-balance you can't even walk straight right now. Think about how you're going to apologize to Asia after we get you and Soleil out of your ridiculous situation."

"...Damn it all..."

* * *

 **(1): "Dance of the Dead". Fitting considering the winds spurt from the ground. XD It is also a symphonic piece for piano or orchestra made by Liszt in the '800s, based on the slightly better known _Dies Irae_ hymn.**

 **(2): "Heaven Orb". This will seriously be what Orochi uses most of the time, so get used to it.**

 **(3): "Sacred Arrow". This is a Bleach reference, which I included because Quincies are fucking cool. It's really just a projectile of compressed air in this fic, but as you might imagine, when it doesn't pierce the surface of one's skin outright, it still hurts like hell.**

 **(4): This is a reference to the LN of "Chivalry of a Failed Knight". A certain character (she's implied to be incredibly strong from the start, and only gets more ridiculous in later volumes) uses this line when confronting the MC of that novel, and calls him out on his inexperience, despite the fact that the author had often highlighted how said MC actually performs very often almost impossible feats for a human being. He does okay, considering who he's facing, but he's unable to hurt her at all for most of the fight, and ends up losing.**

 **(5): "Vacuum Wave". This one doesn't actually reference anything. There's a Pokemon move named like this, but it's just a coincidence and it can instead be considered as a slightly enhanced palm strike.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **This is the chapter where Orochi starts actively using magic together with his usual physical abilities. It's quite the effective style for someone who can adapt fairly easily to the opponent he faces. His arsenal will be restricted to only Wind spells due to the Brand, but it will be quite vast regardless. It's all stuff he has learned under his mother's supervision when he was a kid, and he has decided to utilize those memories only now that he knows how to create a core, and only after practicing in safe environments off-screen.**

 **You might be wondering: "Why exactly didn't Orochi's mother teach him how to do that in the first place?". Well, there is a VERY good reason, but the thing is that Orochi himself doesn't know why yet. This is reflected in how he has never questioned his peculiar situation. Already, he's able to cast without chanting, and doesn't understand the reason for that either. The answers are hidden within Annabelle Goenitz's mind, and her obsession with power in particular, and it will be a while before she is explored further.**

 **The fact that Soleil is bisexual is accurate only to the Japanese version of FE:Fates; her sexuality is handled more lightly in the English version and she's a lot more ambiguous, which is why fans of the series might find her slightly OOC if they only know about her English self. She's already trying to hit on Raynare now that it's clear she isn't a threat, haha. Once again you might have doubts, since DXD shows how the Church tends to behave with people who show twisted moralities. Well, let's just say for now that her capabilities are not something the Church is willing to discard too easily. You'll see soon.**

 **That's it for now. I hope this isn't too chaotic, I really do. Of course I intend to keep revising in order to fix up what needs to be fixed, but do keep in mind that due to the absence of Kiba some scenes have been cut and the Kokabiel fight will be for the most part something I pulled out of my ass, so to speak.**

 **Review, you guys. Talk dirty to me! (*sax plays in the background*) Joking, of course.**

 **Next time, a revelation and more scuffles.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	25. Arc 3 Chapter 4

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I... actually don't know what to write today. Seriously drawing a blank here.**

 **Let's see... I'm becoming increasingly busy as anticipated. Today I had to load some wood into my father's car, and carry it from my father's old house to the new one. He's gonna move very soon, you see, so I'll have to help out these next few days, even though it's a huge pain in the ass. Also, this new place where he will stay? He'll stay there only for 3-4 months, because the house that he _actually_ has to move in is still in construction, and will hopefully be finished within the year.**

 **As for the story, writing is going a bit better than before. I now have an idea of the direction I want Arc 4 to take for the time being, and I think I'm actually starting to write better as well.**

 **This chapter features the start of the final day, the one when Orochi is supposed to die. I'm going to slightly spoil stuff with this, but I want you to know that I've decided to stitch together the holes left by the absence of Kiba in the story. In other words, the battle with Kokabiel will start immediately after this chapter, pretty much. I realize I'm going a bit fast again, but this time it's really out of my control. I tried to add a little something to compensate, at least! Hope you like that part when you get there.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 4 - Serendipity

The final day.

After successfully coercing the two human exorcists into allowing him and Raynare to aid them in their task the day before, that group of four had gathered once again at Orochi's house to discuss their next course of action.

He was currently evaluating the information that the Fallen girl had given him.

Kokabiel, the person behind the theft of the Excalibur fragments, was apparently a Cadre-level Fallen Angel that had existed since the Great War between supernatural factions and had apparently fought in it. Not only was he incredibly powerful, but also fairly experienced to boot.

Clearly he wasn't going to be an easy opponent at all, and standard tactics weren't going to cut it against such a foe.

Even so, in those four's mind that was but a secondary concern if compared to the current threat that was an Excalibur-wielding Freed Sellzen.

Orochi, as usual, decided to cut straight to the point.

"Alright people, first of all we figure out a way to defeat Freed easily. A drawn-out battle is out of the question, since we might run into Kokabiel at a bad time."

"Agreed." said Soleil. "For now, thanks to Ray-chan's encounter with him and her description of the weapon he had, we can safely assume that he has at the very least Excalibur Rapidly in his arsenal. It allows him to move at incredible speeds, and enhances the flexibility level of his body and his reflexes to an extent."

"Sounds like a pain in the ass but he straight up decided he didn't like his chances when he realized my level of power." argued Raynare. "Something's fishy; he would never hesitate like that."

"Perhaps he currently has poor control over it, and didn't trust himself with a "toy" that he couldn't use properly." pondered Xenovia. "Needless to say, this means that we have to take him out as soon as possible in order to avoid a scenario where he's able to keep up with us."

"Right. How do we find him?" asked Orochi.

"Well, it's Freed we're talking about. He doesn't clean up his messes as far as I know." claimed Raynare.

"So we follow his trail like hounds... Fair enough. We have to hope that Kokabiel, or whoever else has employed that madman, isn't actually covering for him though."

"That doesn't seem to be a problem." said Soleil. "A few priests came here to scout before we arrived, and... well, sadly they're all dead. And their corpses are right where we found them. I think Kokabiel is not even _trying_ to hide."

"Hmph. He feels secure. Or maybe he wants to be found. What would his aim be if that was the case?" questioned Raynare.

"We haven't figured it out yet. Technically speaking, he has no use for Excalibur. It certainly doesn't add much to his already immense power. And he even gave one of the fragments to someone like Freed, with methods we're not aware of since clearly he shouldn't be compatible. We just can't come up with a good reason."

"If we defeat him, his reasons won't matter." said Orochi with a tone of finality. "And it's clear that this needs to end _now._ Let's split up and look for Freed for the time being. I'm sure we can all agree that retrieving the Excaliburs will be a step in the right direction no matter what happens."

He then looked at Raynare.

"I leave Soleil in your capable hands, oh companion of mine."

"Eeeeeeeh?!"

"Eeeeeeeh?!"

"Eeeeeeeh?!"

Three voices were lifted in protest for various reasons.

"C'mon, it's a game! The duo that finds Freed first gets to break his legs!"

But they didn't have time to question him. Suddenly, he grabbed Xenovia by the arm forcefully and dashed out of the house.

"HOOOOOOOOLD OOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooonnnnn..."

The poor girl, who had been forcefully and comically sweeped off her feet by the boy, could only let out a cry of anguish. Soon it was the only thing that remained of that unlikely pair in that house.

"..."

"..."

"We should have seen this coming."

"Yes, we should have."

"Shall we go then?"

"Sure."

Resolved to at least try to keep up with Orochi, the two remaining girls ran out the building like madwomen, ready to find a blood-drenched murderer.

* * *

Funnily enough, it was the latter pair that arrived to one of Freed's possible locations.

They couldn't have known that, but they had entered an abandoned warehouse that had hosted a Stray Devil until two days before, when it had been unfortunate enough to run into an irritated Orochi.

While the girls were examining the building, Soleil decided to strike up a conversation.

"Hey Ray-chan, how did you meet the Boss? He's never been the type that has the patience to deal with the supernatural on a daily basis."

"It's not much of a story. I just walked into him one night, and he decided he didn't like my attitude. And proceeded to beat me up."

"...Ouch."

"Yeah, ouch. But after that, circumstances started accumulating, and I ended up living with humans under that house. All in all, it's better than being killed by the Devils so I suppose I shouldn't complain."

"You... don't like humans?"

"I don't like _most_ humans." After making a strange expression Soleil couldn't quite identify, the Fallen girl elaborated. "...You know? Frankly speaking, logic dictates that I should be treating the Eisenwalds like dead-weight given my situation, and they are. Still, that house holds a kind of warmth that I've never been able to experience in my childhood. I've always longed for a family that behaves like it should."

The look on Raynare's face, despite the tension that came with the hunt for a serial killer, seemed incredibly serene.

"I... I'm happy there. I don't want to leave. I don't want to see them die. I will not allow it, no matter who I must face."

She then looked straight into the human girl's eyes.

"I am not afraid. Not of Kamakura, not of his family. Not of Heaven's Gate _,_ and not even of Freed or Kokabiel. I will face my enemies, and live through every ordeal so that I can come back home and argue with Nina, or hear Agnes tell me that she wants to play with me."

"..."

Soleil was surprised at the level of sincerity that the Fallen girl's voice was holding. Yet, she decided to speak her mind.

"...Sorry, I don't think I can relate to your situation. Papa and Mama loved me, and I loved them in exchange. I only left home because of the Goenitz household incident, when Boss disappeared."

Regret filled the exorcist's voice.

"I was afraid of the eventuality that Boss' parents might have gone mad after he left the prefecture. Afraid that they would cut all ties with themselves. Afraid that they would take a plane, fly to France, and knock at our door only for the sake of murdering me and my parents out of anger, despite the bond of friendship Papa shared with Soichiro-san. And as I found out later on when researching them properly, past events make it fairly obvious that they actually might have done such a thing if they felt like it."

"...That didn't happen though, right?"

"It didn't." confirmed Soleil, her back still facing Raynare. "In fact, I'm sure my parents are doing well enough even if I'm not there. But the fact remains that I couldn't bear staying there with them, fearing the arrival of people that maybe could come for my life."

She turned to face Raynare straight on.

"My lack of knowledge back then lead me to flee from my family. But now I wield that knowledge both as a weapon for myself and as a shield for my parents. What allowed me to do all this on my own, the thing that relieves me of all my worries for the people I care about...

...is _**my Abnormality**_."

"! You too?!"

Raynare was understandably surprised. To think that Orochi's "friend" from a long time ago was an Abnormality wielder herself! The few days she had spent in their company had truly been full of absurdities.

"Yes, although I don't know what you mean by "too". And it looks like you're going to see it in action very soon."

"?"

Soleil turned her head towards the darkness ahead of the duo, and Raynare followed her lead.

"Oh no. No, no, nonononono, please don't mind me."

A voice resounded in the building.

"It's a policy of mine to never ruin emotional moments like this. After all, my duty is to make sure they will cease to have any meaning immediately afterwards! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Ugh, he eavesdropped."

"How unpleasant."

"Rude?! Who do you think you are? You're in the presence of this great Freed Sellzen, so the proper etiquette would be to bow down in respect, lick the tip of my boots, then keel over and die!"

"Hmph, rotten bastard. You don't realize what you're dealing with."

After saying that, Raynare disappeared from her spot.

Freed had approached them from the side of the warehouse that had its emergency exit. And Raynare wasn't going to allow him to leave so easily again after taunting them.

So she moved with immense speed directly behind the former priest, blocking the way to the secondary exit.

Freed immediately noticed he was surrounded with very little effort. And reacted accordingly.

"AAAAAAAHHH, damn it damn it damn it! I was only supposed to play around for a bit, but I was trapped so easily! This is not the meaning of "surrounded by women" that I seek! OUT OF THE WAY!"

In a panic he extracted his weapon. As expected by Soleil, he was somehow made into the wielder of Excalibur Rapidly.

"Come on, Chopper Sword! I need you to cooperate!" was his plead to that piece of shining metal.

"I won't let you stain that sword any further, Freed Sellzen."

Soleil made that declaration, Excalibur Mimic appearing in her right hand.

"You can't beat me!"

And charged the crazy priest with that loud shout.

"And you can't catch me, bitch!"

Freed's speed became apparent immediately. Deeming Soleil to be the most immediate threat, he planned to break the encirclement by running past Raynare and straight out of the door he used to enter the building in the first place.

But there was a miscalculation. One he couldn't have predicted even in a million years.

He had barely started running away from the exorcist when _he tripped on the edges of his own coat._

Suddenly faceplanting to the floor, Freed was too stunned by what happened to even register the slight throbbing of his forehead.

Tripping? Him? Impossible. He couldn't accept it. Such a thing had never happened to him, even back when he was in training and still associated with the Church.

Something was wrong.

"Oooooi, if you stumble now you won't even be able to put up a fight, you knooooow?" warned Soleil nonchalantly, as if to mock him.

The whole time, Raynare was silently observing Soleil's actions. No, it would have been more accurate to say "Soleil's _lack_ of actions".

Nothing Soleil did in those few seconds indicated that she had forced Freed into the ground. The whole ordeal was quite puzzling, she found.

The girl had stopped running after Freed tripped, and was just standing there, glaring at the priest. She then started walking up to his downed form, raising her sword and inverting her grip. She was ready to stab him in the back while he was too confused to realize his situation.

Freed however noticed his new predicament and rolled out of the way as the sword penetrated the hard ground with ease.

Completely unbothered, Soleil adjusted her grip once again while he got up, and _made a slashing motion in Freed's direction._

The distance between them was 3-4 meters, but Excalibur Mimic was easily able to cover that distance by stretching its blade. The blow was too slow, and Freed dodged it with very little effort.

But suddenly, side-stepping the prolonged sword was not enough effort to dodge it anymore.

It dug into his shoulder with impossible timing.

The blade had already descended to the point where its course couldn't be adjusted without losing stability in one's stance. Even so, it was able to bend in his direction as if it predicted where he would move.

"GH! W-What the hell?! How did you know I would move like that?"

"I didn't." answered Soleil. " _I just took a guess._ "

"Do you expect me to believe that crap?!"

Excalibur Mimic started retracting as Soleil's arm pulled back.

That motion, similar to that of a fishmonger cutting open a fish in order to remove its organs, slashed his shoulder tendons. He was barely able to react, and grab Excalibur Rapidly with his other, not useless arm before his opponents could have a chance of grabbing it.

"No need to be surprised. You were just unlucky. And that is exactly how my ability can influence my opponents' actions."

Soleil raised Mimic in front of her, its blade glistening from the light it emanated and the fresh blood that stained it.

"This is _**Serendipity.**_ My first guess will always be on point, and nothing the opponent can do will ever hit me. I'm _the luckiest person on this planet._ "

"For real?! I'm gonna need some of that luck if I want to escape! Do you mind if I cut you into ribbons and keep one of your eyeballs as a charm?"

'Luck, huh? I see now...' thought Raynare.

Soleil had always had a good life.

Her parents loved her, and she never lacked anything.

She was someone who could stand on Kamakura Orochi's side, and _somehow_ _never get on his parents' bad side despite her personality._ Within reasonable limits, assumed Raynare, if the few tales she heard from Nina about the boy's mother were any indication.

When she ran away, she managed to _somehow find shelter in the Church's loving arms_ , _and somehow even become part of its forces as an exorcist despite not being really anything special._

She _somehow found Orochi once again two days ago_ , right before heading out into a suicidal mission.

The two of them _somehow won Orochi's stupid little race, despite his headstart._

How unlikely was this string of events? They defied logic completely.

 **Serendipity** was without a doubt an Abnormality, concluded Raynare.

But it wasn't flawless. Abnormalities, or at least one side of them, were not something that could be just switched off at the snap of one's fingers. Despite obviously being always active, it didn't work on the Fallen girl during her fight with the exorcist.

...Actually, that was the wrong way of looking at it. Soleil had claimed back then that she didn't want to fight, and she lost. Which meant that Serendipity was most likely strictly connected to Soleil's thoughts and desires. Had she wished for something, she would have obtained it, one way or another.

Raynare realized right there that Soleil had in fact wished for "her fight with the Fallen to end" back then. And Serendipity realized that wish in the fastest possible way: by making her lose to a physically stronger opponent _like she should have._

In other words, that Abnormality could definitely defy logic, but it could also _not._

It would deliver results in the fastest possible way, but it would disregard the consequences completely. It probably wasn't able to influence events outside of Soleil's knowledge, either.

It was a double-edged sword: something that became evident immediately.

"Abnormalities are truly fascinating, aren't they, Freed?"

"Is that you, old man Valper? What do I do?! Her ability is so ridiculous that even I don't know how to deal with it!"

A strange old man in priest garbs had appeared from the emergency exit. He was human, and the door wasn't exactly well-covered by Raynare who was slightly distracted by Soleil's overwhelming battle, so he had managed to enter the building quietly and without anyone noticing.

He didn't seem to be threatening at all, and yet he was unbothered by the Fallen's presence.

But then he started speaking again.

"Freed, you're still not using that sword correctly. Gather in your blade the _element_ I gave you. You'll be able to move a lot better if you do it like that."

Freed seemed to have an epiphany.

"Oooooooh, I think I get it now. Like this, right?"

And suddenly Excalibur Rapidly started glowing a lot more brightly than before.

"Hahaha, oh yeah, I feel it now! Now I can finally fight and cut and slash and kill at my leisure!"

Raynare couldn't help facepalming. With Soleil obviously unable to predict the arrival of that old man, she had snapped out of her stupor far too late, and allowed Freed barely enough time to gain proper control over the Excalibur fragment.

"...What a mess. You took too long to finish it, you idiot."

"...Yes, I'm completely at fault. I'm sorry, I really am. I messed up again... *mumble mumble*..."

Soleil had realized her mistake and gloomily apologized with her head held low.

And despite everything that had already happened, the evening could apparently only become more chaotic.

"COMING THROUGH!"

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The warehouse's shutter was torn open by an unidentifiable object.

A chipper Orochi and a terrified Xenovia had suddenly moved behind the old man. More accurately, they had crashed into the wall.

Orochi immediately jumped out of the smoking crater as if nothing happened, and started looking around in order to assess the situation, while ignoring _the sudden buzzing in his head._ He quickly realized what was going on.

"Ah, shit, I lost! I can never win against Soleil, dammit!"

"B-BOSSSSSSSSS! My wish came true! You came to help us!"

"Screw you! You found Freed first and didn't break his legs! KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, YOU FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!"

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

'That's definitely not what happened though. I just texted him while these two idiots were distracted...' thought Raynare, sweatdropping.

"...I don't understand what's happening, but I'm glad to see you, you piece of shit human!"

Freed was fed up with that insanity that surpassed his own, and raised Excalibur Rapidly.

"PAYBACK TIME!"

His movement speed reached another level. Even Raynare couldn't follow the action properly.

The priest ignored Soleil, ran past the Fallen, and moved to attack Orochi.

"...?"

The boy, still focused on Soleil, shifted his gaze towards Freed.

"Oh hey, you're a lot faster. That's improvement right there."

And suddenly, Freed was outsped despite his sword's abilities.

The hated white-haired human was behind him.

"However, my Gespenst is more than enough to compete with you."

Orochi immediately grabbed Freed's nape, spun around once, and flung him straight into the emergency exit's door behind his back, crushing its hinges easily.

Valper's confident smile dropped at that display, and became a frown. He turned calmly towards the fallen plastic door.

"Freed. This man is too much for you, and your job was to only test your light element either way. Let us retreat for now."

"...Damn it. I've had enough of being thrown into things. This isn't over, you fuckers!"

With surprising vitality Freed picked himself up after saying that, approached quickly the priest, and after putting Rapidly's grip into his mouth extracted a flash bomb from his coat with his one good arm.

 ***BANG!** *

And just like that, they had escaped. The noise in the boy's ear was also gone.

Raynare and Soleil were, however, too concentrated on the fact that Orochi was somehow able to attack Freed despite his speed.

"Okay, how the hell did you do that?!" demanded the Fallen girl.

"Do what? That was just a normal Gespenst. The idiot sees red every time he meets us, and can't help but run in a straight line towards his target. It's incredibly easy to move behind such an attacker." said Orochi, scratching his cheek out of bewilderment. He was, for some reason, perplexed at their question.

"I want to call bullshit, but he's making too much sense, damn it." said Soleil. "No matter. Let's go after them!"

"Sure, let's."

"YOU DRAGGED ME THROUGH A SHUTTER AND THREW ME INTO A WALL!"

Xenovia, who had just recovered from the crashing, was _very_ upset, and made no effort to hide it.

"Wrong. I threw _us_ into a wall, you selfish woman."

"How is that any better?!"

"It is better. You stopped shouting when I did that."

"OF COURSE I WAS SHOUTING! How fast were you even running?!"

"Not sure. I was too busy dodging cars to calculate my speed back then."

The girl's frown was reeking of frustration after hearing that.

"...I give up. Soleil, let's leave him here and go after Freed."

"Raynare, go with them. I just remembered I've got stuff to pick up before I engage Freed."

That peculiar statement shook the three girls out of their stupor.

"Wait, what? Aren't you coming?" asked Raynare.

Orochi sighed, then decided to explain.

"...Despite how it looked, I can only handle that bastard's speed for a fraction of a second. And the other Excalibur fragments were not with him. _And_ Kokabiel didn't show up from what I could see. I refuse to go in unprepared, so I'll be grabbing some stuff I left at a certain secret spot back at the orphanage before coming to help. I'll find you, so don't worry about me."

"...Well, if you say so. But don't you dare bail on us!"

The look on his face darkened.

"...You have no idea how tempted I am to do exactly that, but I still have my responsibilities."

"?"

"Nevermind. See you later."

He turned around and darted out of the broken shutter with more or less the same speed he came in. That is to say, the shockwave he caused with that movement threw a handful of solid wind in the girls' faces.

After recovering, Soleil decided to finally speak her mind.

"...Ray-chan, there's something he isn't telling us."

"I know, Soleil. And he refuses to speak to me so we can't do anything about it. Let's just go."

"..."

With that heavy atmosphere the three girls departed from the building and ran after the priests.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **So, _Serendipity_ is a bit of a difficult word. It means "an unexpected but fortunate encounter, discovery or experience", and it fits Soleil perfectly. You see, in her game she's the daughter of this guy called Laslow, who happens to be a bit of a casanova himself. However, there is a huge difference between father and daughter: when Laslow hits on girls, it never works, but Soleil actually manages to score fairly frequently (with people of the same sex, no less), if I recall correctly. Even though it's just flirting in her game, I feel that this word could be applied to most of her successful conquests, so to speak, even though they are only briefly mentioned in supports.**

 **It also fits with what her attitude is usually supposed to be, even though it's not very evident in this chapter: cheerful and energetic, the kind of girl who smiles even in the face of Death itself. I don't know about you guys, but I like imagining that Lady Luck is so smitten by her smile that She cannot help but constantly give this girl immense good fortune.**

 **Of interest is also the contrast of emotions between Soleil and Raynare. I highlighted the fact that although her life is blessed with endless good luck, which even moves over to her parents whenever she wishes, Soleil has been plagued by her own paranoiac thoughts and worries for the longest time, and felt forced to abandon her family because of them. At the same time, Raynare has defeated those same thoughts by earning a new family for herself, and turned that new responsibility into her strength as she trains with Orochi.**

 **So yeah. This chapter was a bit more Soleil and Raynare-centric, and I'll have one more half-chapter that shifts the focus on these two later down the line. I'm pretty happy with this one, although I might adjust a few things one of these days, if I feel like it.**

 **What did you think of this chapter? Review and tell me.**

 **Next time, the battle begins.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!**


	26. A Slight Delay (Update kinda)

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Sorry, no story chapter yet.**

 **I know it's been more than two weeks by now, and the reasons are several.**

 **First, shortly after the release of my latest chapter, I've been very busy with real life stuff. This went on until... let's see... the 10th of September. Afterwards, well... I got distracted by a few things, mostly a certain SMRPG hack and making videos for my Youtube channel. Lately I've dedicated a bit more time than the usual amount to it, because I've got a few things hanging and waiting to be finished.**

 **But the last reason is the most important. As predicted, I'm having trouble with the draft: namely, Chapter 5 happens to be the lowest point of the entire arc story-wise, and I refuse to publish it the way it is.**

 **So I'm thinking of rewriting the chapter from scratch. It won't take very long due to the fact that my chapters, as you might know, are relatively short, and I've also prepared a little check-list with all the things that I want to write in it. And finally, of course, I can still find a base of sorts in this potentially scrapped Chapter 5 I'm talking about.**

 **I could've started writing it sooner, but this damn chapter was like an unwanted child you don't want to deal with if at all possible, and I've always been reluctant to modify it. So yeah, I came up with this simple idea that will hopefully allow me to overcome this mental block I've barricated the path with.**

 **I'll try to get it out in the next coming days, but I'm still not sure I'll be able to start writing before Monday. It will come though, I promise.**

 **In the meantime, I can tell you that holy shit, I'm going all out with the original Arc 4. The story is gradually forming, one sentence at a time, and it looks rock solid for once. Currently, I've finished Chapter 4 and I plan to start the 5th as soon as I finish the "other" 5th. I can guarantee that right now, it almost looks like a proper story! XD**

 **Maybe I'm actually good at this! Although I doubt you guys agree, haha.**

 **That's all for now. I will see you soon, I swear! Stay shiny! (Code MENT reference)**

 **Vinzelles**


	27. Arc 3 Chapter 5

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path To Freedom.**

 **It's been a while, sorry about that. I've already explained the reasons however, so let's talk a little about something else.**

 **There's a good chance that Arc 4 will end up being really long. I'm writing a lot and I need everything: not a bad feeling, I'll be honest. Having content in bulk is not bad at all, and the train isn't friggin' stopping, let me tell you. In fact, before writing this new Chapter 5, I wrote not only Arc 4 Chapter 5, but also Chapter 6. Why? Because I didn't feel like writing this one right away, haha.**

 **Such things tend to happen to me, probably because deep in my core I hate having to do certain things twice. No doubt it will happen again in the future, and the problem will surely become bigger than what it is now, since I'm visibly getting better at writing and the amount of content is increasing. I sure hope I'll be able to hold on and take it on the chin when it inevitably happens.**

 **For now, I can promise that most of the rest of this arc shouldn't be going through the same problem. _Some_ of it will, but I should have enough of a time margin to recover even if I decide to go back to the usual schedule _now._**

 **It still might be a little shaky for a bit, because I'll be stuck at my father's house next week, which means I'm not sure of when exactly I'll be able to come here to my PC and upload the next chapter. I'll make time, I swear. Just... I don't know which day I'll pick to do it. e.e**

 **That should be enough for now. I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 5 - Returners

Despite the time they had lost, the distinctive signature of an Excalibur fragment was enough to lead the three girls all the way to Kuoh Academy.

"...The school? Why here of all places? There's nobody here at this hour of the day." said Raynare, puzzlement in her tone.

"Raynare-san, is that you?"

For some reason Anya and her peerage had not gone home yet, and the High-class Devil had called out to her from the courtyard just in front of the school grounds.

"We saw that Freed person and some other old priest run into the school grounds from the club window. Are you girls okay?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Speak for yourself, Fallen. My nose still hurts." protested Xenovia with a deep frown.

"I don't even want to know what happened, since Orochi-kun was involved. ...Speaking of which, where is he?" asked Unryuu.

"He has some things to gather and should be arriving soon, or so he told me." answered Raynare with a shrug. "More importantly, what's the situation?"

"We were unable to intercept them in time, but we managed to trap them in the area with Sona-sama's help."

"The student president? I see, she must be the other pure-blooded Devil I sensed when I first came here..."

"Yes. She and her peerage raised a barrier to prevent them from escaping, and to avoid damage to the surrounding areas-"

"Avoid damage, you say?! That's nowhere near enough! Our true enemy is-"

 **"That would be me."**

The girls heard that voice from above.

It belonged to a man with pale skin and uncharacteristical pointy ears. He had bloodshot eyes and long flowing black hair, and wore a black robe with several gold accessories decorating it.

He was currently sitting on a fancy-looking floating chair, as if he was a king, and was looking down at them as he spoke. His gaze seemed especially focused on Anya.

"Greetings, Anya Adramelech. I am Kokabiel... and today I will take your life."

"Huh?"

"Your sacrifice, along with that of your friend, the little sister of one of the Satans, will bring about the change I seek."

"We won't let you do as you please, Kokabiel!" strongly declared Xenovia.

Hearing that, the Cadre started to actually pay attention to the people that were accompanying Anya. To his displeasure, there were only two exorcists.

"...What is this? Are my actions so irrelevant to Michael that he would dismiss me by sending only two people after me? Even after what I've done? How laughable. That was a mistake caused by eccessive arrogance."

"It's not like you have any right to speak on the matter, Kokabiel! You're arguably worse off!"

Kokabiel then moved his gaze onto Raynare in response to her words.

"...What was your name again? Raynare, if I recall. You were Azazel's most recent banishment from the Grigori. And your mother is a bit of a celebrity, isn't she?"

Raynare started to scowl the moment she heard those words.

"...You just _had_ to go there, huh?"

"Ha! HAHAHA! To think that I would meet _Obyzouth's daughter_ here of all places... This might actually turn out to be an interesting night, after all."

He snapped his fingers.

"Well, for now I will keep you all occupied. My subordinates are too busy right now, so you'll have to make do with these friendly pups."

Two portals opened a short distance from the group. From them, two monsters emerged.

They had three growling heads, and otherwise looked like gigantic dogs capable of breathing fire.

The Cerberi.

"What the?! You would pull these creatures away from the Underworld to have them do your bidding?!" shouted Anya in protest.

"Correct." confirmed Kokabiel nonchalantly. "I firmly believe that one should go ahead and do something if he's even remotely capable of it."

He spread his arms wide.

"This stagnant world disgusts me, so let my summon of these Cerberi be my first official action towards the revival of the Great War! We will prove ourselves superior!"

"So that's his aim." realized Unryuu. "Indeed, killing Sona-sama would be in fact more than enough to easily drag Leviathan-sama into this war of his. And she doesn't have nearly enough regard about the human world to make sure that Japan isn't wiped off the map!"

"Agreed." said Anya. "So then, our duty is to hold this line, everyone! You're not allowed to die on my watch!"

"Yes, ma'am!" x5

Five people extracted their weapons of choice, while Asia stood by, ready to heal whoever got injured.

The Cerberi, having identified their enemy, started charging at them.

 ***ROAR!** *

"I will keep one busy, Anya-sama. Please concentrate on the other!"

"I'm counting on you, Unryuu!"

The white-haired girl immediately grabbed one of the heads of the Cerberus that was approaching her, and started pushing it away.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!"

Leaving behind a trail of grass lifted by the beast's hind legs, she managed to drag it away from the other. Meanwhile the others were getting ready to attack the second Cerberus.

Xenovia, due to having a lot of pent-up stress to relieve herself from, was the first to meet the gaping maws of the demonic dog. Unraveling the cloth around Excalibur Destruction, she intercepted the teeth of one of the heads, easily matching its strength thanks to her sword. In fact, some teeth fragments flied out of its mouth the moment the sword collided with it.

While this wasn't enough to even make it flinch, his charge had been stopped nevertheless. Anya immediately jumped on its back, willing to take advantage of the demon's broken momentum, and readily stabbed one of her spears into its left head, piercing through its cranium.

With one of its heads becoming suddenly unresponsive, the Cerberus' reaction was brutal and sudden. Raising one of his forelegs, it swiped at Xenovia and knocked her away. It then shook off vigorously Anya from his back and roared in anger.

 ***RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!***

However, Raynare was not intimidated at all. Without even unfolding her wings, she dashed forward, and nailed both of the demon's forelegs to the ground with her spears of light. Howling in pain from the burning sensation, its central head tried to snap at the Fallen Angel, but she bended her body backwards to dodge, and kicked its jaw as she backflipped.

Distracted by Raynare, the demon didn't notice Excalibur Mimic's blade approaching its right head, and Soleil easily severed it from the respective neck.

Now with only one remaining head, the Cerberus was incredibly angry. It roared again, but this time a torrent of flames spewed forth from his mouth, scattering the group.

Soleil jumped in front of Asia with a huge smile, transforming Mimic into a shield, and protected her from the flames without hesitation.

"Ah! Soleil-san!"

"I'm fine! Stay focused, Maiden!"

Raynare was also ready to act. As she leaped away, she created a Fragment and fired it from her finger with precision. The segment of light disregarded the fire as it should have, and reached the deepest part of the dog's throat.

 ***BOOM!** *

Nothing remained of the middle head. And just like that, one of the Cerberi was dead.

"...Phew."

Soleil huffed as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, no doubt caused by the heat of the flames.

Asia was just as sweaty, but she hadn't noticed. Instead, she was trying to find a reason in her head for Soleil to decide to shield her.

"Soleil-san... you protected me? I t-thought you-"

"That was my bad back then." The pink-haired girl interrupted her. "I've thought about it, and I've realized that this cowardly me had no right to say anything to you."

"But you're not a coward at all? Your smile just now was so wide!"

The belief in Asia's voice was so deep that she wasn't even stuttering. However, Soleil couldn't bring herself to agree.

"Hey, Maiden. Do you know why I smile on the battlefield?"

"?"

The on-going battle had suddenly lost importance. Asia, the benevolent girl that she was, had already forgiven the exorcist for belittling her current existence, and had her attention caught by that question instead.

Soleil was a strong girl, and Asia felt that she could have learned a thing or two from her. But she didn't expect the kind of answer that that question had.

"It's because I'm scared to my core. You are also afraid, right?"

"! Ah... Yes, quite."

"Yyyeah, well..."

The girl scratched her head in mild embarrassment.

"As you probably know, it's a horrible feeling. It's something I don't wish anyone to experience if at all possible. But in such a hopeless situation there's no way that you, or even the others, aren't afraid."

"Soleil-san?"

"So I put the widest smile I can muster on my face. You can think of it as a way to give courage to the people around me, so that the entire group can readily recover from any mistakes I could make. And you know, this little gesture is an important part of me. It's something that my power can't influence, so only I can do it."

"..."

"Smile, Maiden. Smile in front of all adversities. It's really hard at first, but once you get the hang of it it'll be like second nature, and your Devil family will appreciate it for sure."

"Yes! I-I will try!" proclaimed Asia.

A burning determination to better herself had finally sprouted in her eyes.

...

In the meantime Unryuu was keeping at bay the other Cerberus on her own. She had enough strength to intercept that mass of animal muscle, and kept it from injuring her at all with her Adamantite Armor.

Fed up with its effort to try and eat her, the girl lifted the creature over her shoulder, by putting strength into her arms which were holding tightly the dog's jaws, and slammed it on the ground. Before it could regain its bearings and lift itself up, she then twisted with force the head she was holding, and broke one of its necks.

The Cerberus started rolling around and whining due to the pain, thus allowing Unryuu the few seconds necessary to finish it off. She first raised her arms and slammed them down on the writhing body to keep it from moving, then she jumped and covered in Armor her legs.

Finally, she proceeded to dive-kick the demon's ribcage.

 ***CRACK!** *

Feeling something burst inside the dog's body, she leapt off of it and confirmed that, indeed, the Cerberus' heart had bursted and its body had stopped functioning.

The entire time, Kokabiel had observed everything from his position of privilege. The beasts he had summoned were defeated fairly quickly, but there was no sign of worry on his face.

"It wasn't bad at all for a first act. Well fought." he said in a low voice of fake admiration.

"Kokabiel... E-Everything is ready on our end."

Hearing the voice of one of his allies, Kokabiel made his flying chair turn around on itself slightly, and faced a fatigued Valper.

He was on the rooftop of one of the buildings. The Cadre figured it was a bit of a climb for an old human, and decided to cut him some slack out of pity.

"...Very good. Freed, it's your group's turn for this second act!"

Kokabiel called out to the other, mad priest, and Freed rapidly leapt from behind the building onto the same roof.

"Alright! Time to try this baby out then!"

He jumped off of it right away, landing a short distance from Anya and the others. His shoulder had apparently been healed.

And in his hand...

There wasn't Excalibur Rapidly like they had predicted.

Or rather, the sword he held definitely looked like it, but the power within was of a different level.

It was Valper who explained what was going on.

"While you were busy fighting the Cerberi, we have carried out a ritual in order to fuse the Excalibur fragments we possessed into a single sword. Now, the blade wielded by Freed has the capabilities of Excalibur Rapidly, but also of Nightmare and Transparency."

"Damn you... You won't get away again!"

Xenovia expressed her anger towards the priest. Being already in a bad mood, she took a stance and readied Destruction in order to challenge Freed's newfound might.

"And who wants to get away? There is no reason to do so this time. We will make a crater out of this city once we're done with you people! Speaking of which..."

Freed turned his head away from the group and called out.

"It's also your turn to play, Fallen Angels!"

Three figures flew upwards from behind the building Valper and Freed appeared from.

Raynare recognized them, and wasn't pleased at all.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

"Hello, traitor. How do you do?"

"Your human friend did a number on us."

"And we're going to collect that debt from you."

From the sky, those three people appeared before Raynare.

 _Kalawarner._

 _Mittelt._

 _Dohnaseek._

The latter of the three then changed his passive tone to one of anger.

"Look at this, Raynare! LOOK AT MY HANDS!"

Dohnaseek raised his hands and made a show out of them.

"Did you know about this?! It was _**him.**_ My ring fingers couldn't be retrieved after he tore them off, so they're gone forever!"

He made a fist in his almost palpable rage, and a spear of light appeared in his other, open hand.

"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

"..."

Raynare was only mildly surprised by their appearance.

Was it expected? Absolutely not, and yet they were there, working for Kokabiel and aiding him in destroying the city that ruined them. And she certainly didn't know about Kamakura detaching fingers from a person's hands, although deep inside she didn't really put it past him to do so if provoked.

Was their anger justified? Without a doubt. They were humiliated and crushed under that boy's power, and she couldn't help thinking that if it had gone any other way, she would have been killed back then, or standing at their side now. She didn't like the idea of either of those scenarios unfolding in place of the one she was experiencing now.

But was it right for them to be angry at her?

 _No, it was not._

"...Yes, it should have been." admitted immediately the girl. "I was supposed to carry out the ritual, and Kamakura was supposed to tear off _my_ fingers. But that didn't happen. Let me tell you why, Dohnaseek."

"..."

"It was only after I looked very carefully at my hand that I decided that the cards I was dealt could have been played in a different way. From there, things escalated and what used to be our plan was foiled. And I do in fact ask myself sometimes. What would have happened if I carried on with that plan? What if I never met that human? Would we have succeeded?"

"And? Did you come up with an answer, Raynare?!" shouted impatiently and sarcastically Dohnaseek.

"I did not. I don't do "conjectures", Dohnaseek. I may have asked myself those things, and I may have spent enough time on this side to gather the information needed to answer some of my doubts. But the only relevant truth I cared enough about to assemble was this: I merely abandoned a sinking ship, _like I did once in the past_ , in accordance with my instincts. And as such, I owe you nothing."

Hearing that, Dohnaseek was apparently about to reach his boiling point.

"Everyone, I'm taking care of them. I'll leave Freed to you all!" shouted out Raynare to the rest of the group.

"Hahaha, that weak Raynare who was rejected by her outstanding mother back in Grigori intends to fight her three former comrades? This, this is just the best! Nothing could top this joke-"

As Kokabiel was gloating due to Raynare's seemingly absurd conceit, he suddenly heard a strange humming noise. With a frown, he turned his head towards the source, which was one random spot to his right in the crimson skies that colored Kuoh City's evenings at that time of the day.

He couldn't distinguish anything of importance, but the humming noise was definitely there, and seemed to be increasing in intensity.

Everyone else, intrigued by Kokabiel's sudden interruption, also decided to turn their heads towards the apparent source.

"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!** "

It came too quickly.

Kokabiel was caught unprepared. A pair of human feet planted themselves straight in his face, and knocked him to the ground with incredible force, sending him several dozens of meters away.

 ***CRAAAAAAAAASH!** *

The cloud of dust that was lifted by his impact easily surpassed in height the tallest building of Kuoh Academy.

Meanwhile, the person that knocked him away had his momentum stopped by the kick he performed, and managed to back-flip straight into the floating fancy-looking chair.

As that person sat on Kokabiel's former privileged seat, everyone present was looking at him with a mix of contempt and hatred.

"..."

"...Um-"

Anya tried to say something after seeing that person's silence, but he beat her to the punch.

And the first thing he said was...

"RAYNARE, THIS CHAIR IS FUCKING AMAZING! I'M DEFINITELY TAKING THIS BABY HOME AFTER WE'RE DONE HERE!"

Orochi Kamakura had made his triumphant entrance in the battlefield once again.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **The opening of the battle is Orochi-less for obvious reasons, so for this "rewrite" I decided to add a little to the content by having Soleil and Asia briefly interact. It was a good chance to have you, the readers, explore the pink-haired girl's character a little bit. As I said before, I want to depict her as the kind of character who seems to be fighting bravely, but is actually really scared, and hides her true feelings behind a smile.**

 **You could say that she is my first experiment at writing a true "character". Orochi, as you might have noticed, kinda goes with the flow most of the time (something I plan to try and fix in Arc 4 somewhat), and that's a fairly easy way to write a character. So, I want to try doing a little more with Soleil and see what happens. You're in fact going to see one more bit centered on her later in the arc. Although I think I already mentioned this before... *shrug***

 **At the same time this happens, however, I decided that I want Raynare to be a different kind of character. To be more precise, I want her to be someone who is defined by the bonds she has with other people. She is perfect for this second experiment, since she has no background to speak of, and I can dig one up very easily. This other little project will last until well past this arc, and into Arc 4, and will be mostly centered about her and her "fictional" mother Obyzouth.** **That's a name I've grabbed online (I'll let you look it up and make what you will of the significance behind it), and I'm really excited to write her since I have a few ideas already.**

 **Anything else is mostly self-explanatory. Next time, the real battle starts.**

 **Reviews are incredibly important for this chapter, since I've gone through the trouble of rewriting it.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	28. Arc 3 Chapter 6

**Had to make an edit due to a slight mistake. See bottom for details.**

 **Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **So, I screwed up again. This chapter came late and I don't have excuses this time, rather than the usual "I'm getting distracted", which in turn is getting very old.**

 **This time, it was my Youtube channel. First of all, I couldn't find a chance to go home and upload while I was at my father's house. Secondarily, once I came back I decided to record like mad and do literally nothing else, as if to compensate for the week without videos even though this happened before.**

 **The argument I'm trying to make here is, the incredible boredom I felt while I was away from the PC made me decide to do all kinds of things to make it go away: grab a book and *gasp* read an actual physical novel for once, have walks outside even though there's jack shit to do in my town, figure out what I wanted to do after I finished my current playthroughs, and as I said just now, record like mad when I got back, because I wanted to have a hand at the new stuff I wanted to try as soon as possible.**

 **So we've gotten to the point where more than two weeks have passed. ...Whoops.**

 **And it's not over yet: it looks like this coming week will be a little hectic for me too, although for more serious and compelling reasons this time.**

 **I'm gonna try harder to push out a chapter next time. For now, have this one where I introduce some new stuff once again.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 6 - Primal

He couldn't see it until the very last moment.

Whatever had hit him was fairly small in size, but it had reached him with outstanding speed and power: in fact, it was the kind of speed and power that only an arrow or a bullet could achieve. It was an object that couldn't be distinguished until it was right in front of one's nose.

Fortunately, that amount of power was all derived from the object's momentum. Kokabiel was able to gather that much; the object's threat level was still very small, at most a touch higher than the rest of his opponents'.

He rose from the deep dent his body had made on the ground, barely damaged at all, and looked around in search for the harmful item that had managed to catch him by surprise.

He then heard some voices.

"That was stupid fast!"

"That's right, Raynare! That's what a Gespenst is supposed to look like if I just run in a straight line! Hahahahaha!"

"He's getting full of himself again..."

"By the way, Anya. Who did I kick to the ground just now?"

"Ah, that was Kokabiel himself actually. ...Wait, no! You simply decided to strike the first able body you could see, didn't you?! I bet you weren't even aiming just now!"

"..."

"I KNEW IT! YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH ANYTHING!"

"SHADDAP UNRYUU! I'M TRYING TO ENJOY THIS CHAIR!"

The screaming little shit that was hurting Kokabiel's ears with only his voice then turned his head in his direction. And for some reason, a blank expression appeared on that white-haired boy's face.

"...You..."

"What now? Surprised that you couldn't put the hurt on me?" mocked the Cadre.

"Y-You... P-pfffff..."

"?"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

And all of a sudden, Kokabiel was the one feeling mocked. The bastard had started to laugh uncontrollably out of nowhere, and the Cadre couldn't even begin to imagine why.

"What's so funny, human?!"

"T-That appearance of yours, hahaha... It-It's not natural, is it? HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"What about it?! It makes me all the more terrifying if you ask me!"

"For a n-normal person, maybe... But you, I know what happened to you!"

"...What?" asked Kokabiel blankly.

"You've obviously been struck by the **Rioting Blood Curse**!"

"!"

"I KNEW IT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's written all over your face, your eyes, your skin! I bet you have a neck scar from where the rod stabbed you, although I can't see it from here! Really, the only thing that might be natural about that appearance of yours are those stupid elf ears!"

Kokabiel instinctively grabbed the side of his neck with one hand, his anger quickly approaching the boiling point.

"Nevermind my ears! How could you of all people know of that damn spell?!"

"Of course I do! It's one of my mother's custom incantations! Hahahahaha!"

The human found the situation so funny that he even rolled out of the chair, fell from 10-meters height, landed head-first and was _still_ laughing after hitting the ground; meanwhile, every single person in that battlefield was observing him, multiple blank faces wondering what the hell was going on.

"Hahaha... phew... You, you must have tried to get the Goenitz household on your side for some reason, huh? I gotta say, my mother has answered just like I expected her to!"

"Are you saying that you come from that abominable family?!"

The smile on the human's face dropped. He got up.

"Say, Kokabiel. _What did you offer to my mother?_ Money? A battlefield to fight in? Faithful puppet followers for her sect?"

The expression on his face had suddenly become incredibly cold.

"I bet you sought her out due to her fame as a cold-blooded murderer and top-class magician. _But you clearly had nothing that she was interested in."_

He started to walk up to him.

"That makes me wonder what she demanded out of you in exchange for her potential cooperation."

And stopped half a meter from him, eyes fixated on his own despite the difference in height.

 **"Was it my whereabouts? If it was, _I might have to kill you."_**

Kokabiel, in respect of the human's courage to just walk up to him and demand explanations, and in part also because he still didn't believe him to be a threat at all, answered his questions calmly after simmering down himself.

"...Indeed, she had refused everything I had to offer, and asked me if I was able to track down her only son instead. Uninterested in such a task and focused only on reviving the Great War, I had refused her request back then, and asked her to think of something else. And as you can see, _she did._ "

A smirk appeared on the Cadre's face.

"But to think that I would find her son here of all places... Quite the coincidence."

"Agreed. But I'm fine with this. I can finish what she started."

"My exact thoughts. Perhaps she will reconsider her position if I bring over her son's corpse."

"Hmph. Too bad for you: knowing you're afflicted by that curse makes this a lot easier for me."

"We'll see about that."

The two of them turned around and took their distance from each other, step by step.

"There you have it, folks. To anyone who might think of interfering, I will make sure you suffer if you do."

"I will personally smite on the spot whoever tries to step in. Focus on your own fights."

Satisfied with the measures they took, they stopped in their tracks. Orochi generated **Himmelskugeln** around his palms and feet while Kokabiel summoned a greatsword made of pure light.

"LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"

"LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"

And in a heartbeat, the two of them turned around and started clashing.

Everyone else took their actions as the final trigger.

And the all-out brawl finally exploded, _under the gaze of a mysterious blue-haired woman._

* * *

Orochi and Kokabiel immediately took flight towards the reddened sky.

The Cadre's sword and Orochi's fist made contact for the first time, and bounced off of each other. The powerful shockwave following the clash shook the clouds away.

"Oh? I doubted you could withstand even one of my blows, but I take back my thoughts. You're not the completely worthless human I thought you were!"

Kokabiel made an horizontal swing, and Orochi had to duck underneath it due to having no time to back off at all.

"And you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for! I was sure the curse would've left you a lot weaker than this!"

The boy made an uppercut, but it was easily parried with the blade.

"In fact, I feel like my hands will shatter every time I touch that thing you're holding!"

Despite saying that, Orochi had a wild grin on his face.

So did Kokabiel.

"Yeah, right. If that's the case then break down already!"

He swung down towards the human's head. Orochi blocked in time with his wrists but was knocked downwards by the sheer power behind the blow.

And then he disappeared.

'! He escaped my field of vision!'

Kokabiel retaliated by spreading his ten wings.

"Don't think outpacing me will be that easy!"

And literally _fired_ the feathers from his wings as if they were projectiles.

He didn't even try to turn around. He just fired behind him, but it was enough.

Orochi found himself outsmarted, and had to put some effort into deflecting the feathers that threatened to hit him with his hands and feet, aided of course by the Wind Brand.

Neither of them had taken any damage yet, and Gespenst was not effective.

"That was interesting, Crowman. Those wings are not just for show, huh?"

"That's right. Want another dose?"

Kokabiel finally turned around and faced his target before sending another volley of projectiles.

"Sure, why not? It gives me the chance of showing you what I'm capable of!"

Before the feathers could reach him, Orochi made his four Himmelskugeln all burst. The air they were composed of took a different form, and wrapped itself around his wrists and ankles.

"Here goes! **Rote Linie!** " (1)

His speed rose once again.

Kokabiel didn't think much of it at first. He was still convinced that his opponent could achieve incredible levels of speed for only a moment at best.

However, he was left mildly surprised once again.

As he was shooting, he noticed that the human had become nothing but a blur. Only a strange, shining red line was distinguishable. But more importantly...

 _The boy was literally flying circles around his bullets._

'...Not bad. My curtain of feathers is thick enough that even the smallest and most agile of birds would be torn to shreds. And yet, this bastard is dodging everything with a speed only marginally inferior to the one he used earlier! And he's not stopping!'

That red line (which Kokabiel assumed came from the human) was currently performing acute yet precise movements, as if it was a ball thrown against a wall.

And suddenly it charged his position, zipping through the steel feathers as if they weren't even there.

He wasn't ready.

A single fist struck his stomach.

"GH!"

In the moment he was hit, however, the Cadre was able to discern what had just happened.

The colored line he was seeing came simply from the boy's red eyes.

But in those eyes, the pupils were currently _as thin as a needle._

"Y-You... you have raised your focus, haven't you?!"

He swung sideways to get the boy away from him.

"Sure did." answered Orochi, his eyes going back to normal after gaining distance. "Ever heard of the expression "being in the zone"? Up to now, my burst of speed came from just mindlessly moving into your blind spot. Since it doesn't work, I decided to do the exact opposite and, like you said, raise my focus instead. And here we are: **Rote Linie.** A technique that lets me navigate easily through a torrent of harmful objects."

"Tch."

"Of course, it's incredibly unsafe unless I refine and sharpen my movements, and for that reason I changed the flow of the air in my Himmelskugeln into one that was less chaotic, right after making them pop. As such, I managed to create micro-tornadoes that I call **Bohrer** , which have the power necessary to easily launch me in any direction and at any moment." (2)

Instead of forcing his brain into a state of trance like when he used Gespenst, he had forced it into a state of hyperfocus.

And the compressed air, which was formerly bouncing around in the half-meter-wide sphere called Himmelskugel, was now circulating around his wrists and ankles, forming four small tornadoes covering his limbs that could act as propellers when needed.

"...Hmph. As expected of a Goenitz magician. I'll have to give you a little credit, human. Even so!"

Kokabiel pointed his sword at the boy.

"Even with this weakened state of mine, how much strain are you putting on your body and mind just to keep up with me? You won't last much longer!"

Holding the grip with two hands, Kokabiel moved in once more to attack.

"HA! Some backlash is exactly what I need to work my magic!" mocked the boy.

While Orochi was putting all of his strength into matching Kokabiel's blows, he reiterated his plan of attack in his head.

'I'm well aware, Kokabiel. I know that you're way out of my league. Everything I did up to now that had any effect was only a one-time thing; in other words, those surprise attacks won't work again because, all things considered, they aren't very hard to detect for someone like you if I use them a second time. I just don't have the necessary stats to beat this one boss comfortably.'

Dodging another volley of feathers with Rote Linie, the boy closed in and unleashed a flurry of punches, forcing Kokabiel into a defensive stance.

'You know all those things, and that's why you feel secure. All I need to do then is to _overpower you for a single moment._ One Bergschneider should be enough to catch you off guard at the very least. And after crushing that sword of yours, a second blow striking a vital spot will be enough to win!'

The two of them then started flying around at high speeds, exchanging blows all the while.

'In order to carry out that plan, I need to hold on for a little longer. My bones are creaking from the recoil of these **Bohrer** , and most importantly the clashes against that light sword, but Heaven's Gate is currently working on building up immunity. Just a little more, and I can secure victory!'

The collisions between sword and fist, along with the howling sound of the winds currently under Orochi's control, resounded throughout the battlefield.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Kuoh Acamedy's school grounds...

The Fallen Angel trio was currently facing off against Raynare.

The girl was unwilling to kill her former comrades. She _could_ do that very easily the way she was now, but she still felt attached to the few people that didn't scorn her back when she was at Grigori.

Unsure about what she should have been doing, she was currently limiting herself to dodging and blocking the blows coming from the trio.

"Why did you leave us, Raynare?! More importantly, why did you leave us for that human?" shouted Mittelt.

"I simply chose a different path. What's so difficult to understand about that?"

"You came up with that plan to steal Twilight Healing in the first place!"

Two spears of light clashed, Raynare's transparent one and Mittelt's pink one.

"It was so that everyone at Grigori would stop looking down on you, your mother included! And as your friends we were ready to travel with you on that road!"

"...My friends would not have lamented the fact that I managed to achieve my goals on my own!"

Putting strength into her arm, she swatted Mittelt away.

"I wanted them to stop looking down on me, that's true. But the definition of "people around me" has changed!"

She had not moved from her spot the whole time. Only in that moment she decided to unfold her six wings and engage actively her opponents.

"I have realized that _I'm not obligated, nor free to impress anybody!_ "

Their spears clashed again, but Raynare was overpowering Mittelt without trouble, and was easily pushing her back despite her best efforts.

"That guy doesn't care! If I meet his expectations, that's great. If I don't, he mocks me for 10 minutes but then says, "Let's continue tomorrow, it's late now~ ." with the silliest sounding voice he can muster! He always puts pressure on me, but he does so only when he's sure I can handle it!"

With a wide swipe, Raynare knocked the blond into a window.

"HE HAS TRUSTED ME WITH HIS LIFE! HOW CAN I SAY NO TO THAT?!"

And fired a Fragment into it.

 ***BOOM!** *

"What about those other humans, then?"

"!"

Raynare turned around just in time to block Kalawarner's yellow spear.

"What is their role in the equation, Raynare? Personally, I don't really care that you abandoned the original plan, and siding with that bastard is, I suppose, one of the choices you had. But that powerless woman and her kid? What could you possibly gain from them?"

The blue-haired woman gained distance and threw her spear at Raynare.

"It's not about gaining or losing something. Admittedly, they just happened to barge violently into Kamakura's life, and I was only dragged along for the ride. But!"

The Fallen managed to avoid harm by simply grabbing the yellow spear.

"They have accepted my presence! Even that kid did! She wasn't scared of me at all when she found out what I was, and she even calls me Sister. If I had to define their roles in my life right now, I would say that they are people that I feel I must protect!"

She spinned it around to make its tip face Kalawarner, and threw it back at her. She hurriedly dodged it by a hair's breadth, surprised by the sheer speed of the blow.

" _He_ has many other things that afflict him, and can't spare time worrying about some absolutely normal humans."

"So you wish to lighten his burden?"

Raynare then faced Dohnaseek, while Mittelt had managed to recover from the blast and was floating slowly back into the air.

"Can't say I understand that wish of yours. He seems to have all the freedom he needs. Freedom to pick a fight with High-class Devils, to poke his nose into other people's affairs, or to tear off my fingers." (3)

"..."

"But sure, let's try to indulge him for a second here. Let's assume he really can't spare time and effort for those humans' safety. If that's really the case, surely he won't mind if I go into that house after this battle and kill that child you care so much about?"

And just like that...

 _Raynare had lost all the patience and mercy she had in her heart._

 ***CRACK***

 _ **"...I wOn'T lEt YoU lAy A fInGeR oN hEr, YoU hEaR mE?"**_

"! Wha-"

He was unable to finish what he was trying to say.

Not because he was silenced or anything.

But because the situation in front of him was escalating _fast._

An oozy purple aura, was currently surrounding Raynare. The wind had also picked up, and for once it wasn't because of Orochi's presence.

No, it was the _pure pressure_ emanated from the Fallen Angel in front of the trio that had caused the wind's direction to change.

Raynare's appearance was also changing. Her black hair was gradually whitening, and the six wings on her back were becoming translucent, as if they had started to lose their physical form.

And in her eyes, the iris was turning from brown to pure white, and the sclera was turning blood red.

Valper Galilei, who was currently observing the battlefield, noticed the change and immediately assumed an uneasy expression. As a man who loved legends and ancient history, he had heard of those kinds of creatures.

They were God's first attempt at creating beings that would follow His directives. Back when Angels and Devils didn't exist, in order to be able to face and defeat the primordial evils that were being born from the hearts of humanity, He had created those beings and used them as His soldiers in what was said to be a war even fiercer than the Great War.

They were only supposed to be weapons, and to counter the deep darkness emanated by those great evils, He had gifted those weapons with a fraction of His divine power.

A kind of power that boasted the highest purity among all the types of light ever utilized by Angels.

The **Light of Order.**

And those who wielded that light within their wings had been defined by the historians with the name **"Primals".**

It was only after the war was over, and the great evils were sealed away, that God realized his mistake. The Primals, having lost their purpose, weren't any different from wind-up dolls that had ceased to move. If other external forces were to take control of them, an easy task since they didn't have the means to resist, even minor evils could cause great havoc upon the world.

So, He gathered all of the Primals and gifted them with "self-awareness". Upon receiving that gift that allowed them to form their own thoughts and opinions, the absolute purity that was held in their light was immediately tainted.

Yes, it could be said that even the oldest Angels, people like Michael and Gabriel, were not completely pure beings.

And yet, a Primal had appeared right in front of his eyes.

That girl was definitely not an old Angel: she was in fact one of the youngest Fallens in the Grigori.

For her to become a Primal at will, she should have found a way to somehow _purify her soul completely._

Such a thing was impossible even for beings like Azazel and Michael.

It had to be an external factor, but even that conclusion was preposterous.

God had specifically made sure that no Primal would stay the way it was. He had bound the secret to that legendary Light to his very being, so that it would be impossible to replicate it or steal it.

A Primal appearing now was simply impossible, unless...

"! Could it be? ...No, right now I should be focusing on the battle. I shall ponder quietly the events that have unfolded here today _once this town is destroyed._ "

After throwing a glance at the _great magic circle that was hidden behind the building he was standing on,_ the old man returned his gaze to the battle.

Due to the distance, he was unable to hear that girl's parting words.

 **"BeFoRe I lEt ThAt HaPpEn, I'D RATHER KILL YOU ALL!"**

* * *

 **(1) "Red Line". Of course, the red glare comes from Orochi's eyes, since it's accentuated by the shrinking pupils to the point where their brightened color is the only thing visible to the enemy when he moves.**

 **(2) "Drill". This one's easy and self-explanatory to boot, although Orochi mostly uses it as a propeller. The German term for "turbine" would've made more sense but, you know... it ended up being translated as "Turbine". While it is easier, it also kinda screws with the "giving your attacks a cool name" trope. XD**

 **(3) Small reference to DmC: Devil May Cry. The semi-final boss, Mundus, and Dante are having a confrontation and Dante tells him that they're fighting for freedom. The guy tells him, though, that he already has plenty, seeing that Dante has killed his unborn heir. The game itself could be a little better in terms of story, but this was a quote that stuck with me.**

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **The new stuff is gonna come into play with great numbers and intensity from here. First of all, the "revelation" was originally something that, as you might know, originates from Kiba becoming essentially Kaiba (not much of a step-up as it turns out :|) and say "screw the rules", which instates the seed of doubt in Valper if you can recall. The God of the bible and his past actions are and have always been a vital part of DxD's plot, and this was something that I wanted to keep. At the same time, I've been building up Raynare up until now, so it's time to cash in, so to speak. For her sake, I introduced an original event happened in the very, VERY distant past: a war between God and the Primordial Evils, that required adequate weapons to fight. Hence, the Primals. As for why she turned into one of these things, we'll get there.**

 **Next, let's talk about why I made Kokabiel weaker than he should be. You see, the fact that he's for the most part very different in appearance from other Fallen Angels has always struck me as kinda weird. It might be because of how the anime has been handled, now that I think about it. Anyway, I decided to expand that a little bit, and briefly throw Annabelle back into the story just to screw with him. As you saw, of course, him being affected by a curse doesn't give Orochi much of an advantage. He still struggles, a lot, but he can handle him better than he actually should. Fortunately, Orochi already has a plan, and he will set it in motion soon enough.**

 **More new concepts will appear, both original and borrowed, as the arc progresses. Just like in Arc 2, the one relevant battle of this arc ended up occupying the whole second half of my draft! XD**

 **Well, as I write Arc 4 I am trying to address this, but I can't guarantee I'll get the desired results since I'm still nowhere near writing the final battle for that arc. An unknown future awaits, which is kind of intriguing even when I know that I'll want some specific stuff in that arc no matter what!**

 **Review, damn you. I revised this damn chapter three times before publishing it, I think I deserve it! e.e**

 **EDIT: Apparently three times is not enough, because the "next time" paragraph below this one is inaccurate. As it turns out, I miscounted the chapter numbers even in the draft, hahaha. Now it's fixed.**

 **Next time, the "revelation". You know which one I'm talking about, this is the damn Kokabiel arc e.e.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon!**

 **Ciao!**


	29. Arc 3 Chapter 7

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **I have good reasons this time, I swear. I've been sick, then I stayed at my father's for the weekend, then a goddamn thunderstorm cut off electricity until this afternoon. Kinda ridiculous, if you ask me.**

 **I'm also debating whether it's time I widen the gap between updates to 10 days or 2 weeks, since for one reason or another I never seem to make it in time. I'll think about it.**

 **Today we've got the big reveal, and as you know, the absence of Kiba had forced me to think of something that could fit in this universe. Today, everything will fit back together and after this chapter we'll reach the final part of this arc.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 7 - Reality Without God

"...What the hell is happening over there?"

"Don't ask me. I've never seen Raynare in that state before."

The light show that Raynare was subconsciously putting on had distracted even Kokabiel and Orochi.

"...What did you do to that girl?"

"Nothing at all. I have no reason to do so."

" _That_ isn't something that just _happens_ naturally!"

Kokabiel spat those words while pointing at the screaming girl, upset at the fact that he would have to clean up that mess after he was done killing the human.

"Care to explain what's happening then?" said the boy nonchalantly.

"She has somehow become one of those ancients weapons created by God. A Primal!"

"...And?" deadpanned the human.

'...Is he serious? Is he really unaware of what he might've done to her?' Kokabiel couldn't help thinking that, and he answered with a mildly alarmed tone to Orochi's surprise.

" _And,_ something like this should not happen even to an old Angel, much less a young one! Something must be going on within her soul..."

The Cadre started to weigh his options.

"The smart thing to do would be to eliminate her, but allowing such power to go to waste would be unwise-"

"On second thought, Crow-man, I think I know what's going on."

"...What?"

"This power coming out of her... its signature is the same."

"Same as what? Speak clearly!"

 **"My Abnormality."**

Kokabiel froze and looked at the human. This shitty magician was wielding an Abnormality? It sounded very much like a lie if the Cadre thought about their battle just then. After all, he only saw wind magic being used, and the only abnormal thing about the human was his admittedly great physical strength and endurance. However, seeing what was happening to Raynare made Kokabiel think that perhaps he should have considered the possibility.

"...Are you claiming to be a wielder of one of those obscure abilities?" he asked cautiously.

"I wouldn't mind showing it to you if it didn't interfere with my magic." explained Orochi calmly. "I don't have solid proof to give you. But more importantly, Raynare has been exposed to it in the past more than once, in a time when I couldn't control it properly."

"...Just what kind of power would allow a soul to reach its purest form, then?"

The Cadre was currently standing beside Orochi, both floating in mid-air with crossed arms and legs as they looked at what was unfolding. They had briefly forgotten about the fight, and they had even forgotten that they were enemies.

The boy looked at his hand and started muttering.

"...reaching the purest form. A power that expelles negativity and chaos from one's body..."

"Hm?"

"Every time I use it actively, my darkest thoughts are somehow suppressed for a period of time. I have also tampered with it in preparation for a different battle some time ago. Perhaps... Of course!"

The human seemed to have come to a realization.

"My Abnormality has mutated somewhere along the line, when I tried to modify it! But is that even something that can happen in the first place? That annoying Satan didn't tell me anything about that, damn it!"

The human was screaming at thin air again, to Kokabiel's annoyance.

"Get to the point already, brat."

"Ah, well... maybe I messed up when I put it back together ... _And one piece of it has found its way into Raynare's soul,_ is what I was thinking."

"Seems quite farfetched to me. Why have you not reached a similar state then, being the main wielder of this ability? You're not making sense."

"Couldn't tell you, to be honest. Maybe it's exactly because I'm the main wielder, and the Abnormality has found meaning in residing within me or some crap." answered Orochi half-heartedly. "However, I tend to not believe such sickeningly religious banter when it comes from other people's mouths, let alone my own."

Yes. It was all conjecture and he didn't really believe in it himself, but it made a lot of sense.

Most likely, Orochi had not managed to restore his Abnormality to his previous state when he tried to modify it before fighting Riser. A piece of it had probably been staying afloat within his body without him noticing, and he never realized what was going on in time.

Because that piece had probably left his body the moment he opened the Gate the first time. That night, when only Raynare was present and had witnessed the phenomenon.

When the piece entered her body, it had probably merged with her soul, and had started to gradually purify it, eventually turning her into _that thing_.

Whatever it was (What did Kokabiel call her? Primal?), the Cadre had called her "an ancient weapon". In Raynare's case, thought Orochi, it would be more correct of a definition if the word "living" was added in.

Despite what one might have thought, adding that word was necessary to ascertain her threat level. After all, a "living" creature could be reasoned with on a certain degree as long as they were capable of at least basic thought patterns, and the respective values would change depending on the species of the creature. For example, a dog could be convinced to learn tricks, as long as one taught it that it would receive treats when it performed them correctly.

So, could _she_ be reasoned with while in her abnormal state? That was the question Orochi was asking himself, but by the looks of things it wasn't all that likely.

Raynare was currently swinging around her translucent new wings as if they were whips, destroying everything around her as she tried to vaporize her former comrades, and screaming bloody murder all the while. The sounds he was hearing sounded more and more like those of an angry, snarling animal as time passed.

While Orochi didn't particularly care about how those other Fallen Angels were faring, he was still a bit worried for her companion. And then, a dreadful thought emerged in his mind.

...Was her brain _receding_ or something?

'That would be disastrous on so many levels...' he realized.

While the boy was thinking all that, Kokabiel displayed his agreement with the boy's last statement.

"Indeed, I get where you're coming from, to an extent. Anyway, if I observe this situation with proper care, it isn't as impossible as I first thought."

"...What do you mean?"

"Allow me to demonstrate, Goenitz magician. Before we pick the fight back up, there is one thing that I wish to convey to these fools. The appearance of a Primal will probably make no sense to them otherwise. They wouldn't even understand what that girl has become, so I will shine light on them."

"...Well, as long as you don't do that in a literal sense, I don't care what you do. But remember that I'm your opponent, and hurry up. Someone has to deal with Raynare no matter how this fight ends."

"Of course. This is a fight between fellow showmen, fellow harbingers of _Chaos_."

'...Chaos?'

"I wouldn't dare break my agreement with you, as long as you still breathe, that is." continued Kokabiel. "Do take into account that hitting me from behind will not work though, human."

"...Whatever, just go do it. The earlier you return, the earlier I can kill you and solve this mess."

* * *

Some time before the Fallen's transformation, Anya and her peerage, together with the two exorcists, were busy fighting Freed.

And he had become a totally different opponent the moment he had picked up the partially merged Excalibur.

Not only was he incredibly fast, he could also cast illusions of himself, and even become invisible.

The only reason they were all still alive was because Anya was constantly using her Wisdom to keep her side from collapsing, preventing the priest from killing some of her allies whenever possible.

As expected, an opponent that was nearly impossible to hit was quite a handful for them.

Then, a purple flash of light some distance away distracted everyone from the fight.

"Woah! Now that's what I call "power"!" exclaimed Freed, a hand over his eyes. "I had a feeling that something was up with her when she revealed three pairs of wings, but this? Like hell I'm going up against something like that!"

"What even is _that_?" cried out Unryuu, who was trying to resist the energy waves emanated from Raynare.

"Shall I tell you?"

Everyone looked up. Kokabiel was above their heads and had started talking again, while a levitating Orochi was off to the side with arms crossed for some reason, observing the scene with an expression that said "I want to see where this goes.".

Both Unryuu and Soleil were somewhat relieved to see that he wasn't dead yet, and even mildly surprised at the fact that he seemed mostly unharmed, at least on the surface.

Kokabiel then continued.

"That," he pointed his finger towards Raynare, "is called a Primal. An ancient weapon created by God to fight against the great evils of the world a long time ago. Before I was even born, in fact."

He then faced the group below him.

"It looks like her transformation was caused by that human's Abnormality, which has purged the chaos within her soul somehow, and triggered a transformation that I didn't think possible in our present day. Truly, I have to admit that something like this was quite the unexpected event even for me."

"What's your point? Why would you interrupt the fight just to tell us this?" inquired Anya, mildly upset.

"I'm getting to it. You see, such a transformation should be _completely impossible even if one meets all the requirements._ That's because the secret to a Primal's power has always been guarded jealously by the God of the Bible. Despite that, a young Fallen Angel today turned into one of those weapons. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

They didn't get it immediately however.

The exorcists knew very little about ancient legends that were never confirmed to the public. They didn't even know that such a being could exist.

Anya was in a similar situation. While fairly knowledgeable about several things of supernatural origins, a Devil couldn't have possibly known about the implications of a Primal appearing against all odds.

Orochi was pondering that little piece of information quietly, namely the fact that that power was guarded by God and should not have appeared in Raynare at all. If there was one thing that he knew about gods, it was that they couldn't just _mess up at random,_ being unable to make mistakes due to their so-called "perfection" and all that. The entire situation was indeed suspicious.

But Valper Galilei had understood.

"A-Aaah! Unbelievable! Could it be?"

Kokabiel, however, was not too pleased at the fact that only that old man had arrived to the obvious conclusion. More important than that, he was about to steal his spotlight.

 _That_ was unacceptable.

"It has to be it, as I thought! The appearance of the **Light of Order** in these times means that not only the Four old Satans, but even God-"

He couldn't finish the sentence.

An enormous light spear was launched towards him. He was completely erased by it, unable to even utter a sound.

The only thing that remained of him was _a minuscule, pale blue light that looked like a rock_ , which rolled over and behind the building where the man was standing.

"...You are not allowed to speak in my stead, Valper." commented Kokabiel in a low voice.

While that pale light wasn't noticeable very easily, Orochi's attention was for some reason drawn to it briefly.

The quiet buzzing in his ears had started again. He tried to ignore it for the sake of Kokabiel's little "lesson".

"Since none of you has arrived to the conclusion, there's no helping it. I will tell you."

Kokabiel spread his arms and spoke as if nothing had happened.

"The mere fact that a Primal appeared in this world is the ultimate proof of their demise in the Great War! Both the Old Satans' ... _and_ _God's!_ "

That turned out to be a harsh blow to both believers and traitors of God.

The Devils and the low-level Fallens couldn't believe their ears.

Asia and the exorcists almost had a breakdown right then and there.

"How utterly ridiculous is the fact that Heaven has to lie to its underlings just to keep them going! I wonder if you have even noticed that your prayers don't seem as effective as they should?" mocked the Cadre. "Granted, Michael has been doing a semi-decent job maintaining that system by himself, but seriously, it's just not the same. Not that small fries like you would know or notice though, am I right?"

Disregarding those ants' distraught faces, he then took his place back in front of his current opponent.

"So there is that." commented the Fallen, a sickening grin on his face. "God is dead, human. Before we continue, I would _love_ to hear your opinion on the matter. ...Hm?"

His attempt at mockery had fallen flat. The human seemed barely fazed by the news.

"My opinion? If I may be blunt, _I just don't care, Kokabiel._ "

The boy then went on to explain his point of view.

"First of all, I've known only one god all my life. It's not the same God you know, but I've never believed in it nonetheless, one reason being that it's not even an actual deity. The one true goddess I managed to meet is a prick that's trying to take control of my life by constantly invading my dreams. And as for the God of the Bible's death... how does knowing or not knowing make a difference in this situation?"

"..."

Everyone was listening intently to the boy's words.

"You are here because you want to start another supernatural war. We are fighting today in order to stop you. Knowing that God is dead does not change what we must do, does it?"

Kokabiel barely had time to click his tongue before hearing another unpleasant voice.

"I hate to say it, but he's not wrong, Boss!" exclaimed Freed. "Personally I never cared either. Whether He was there or not, I always just wanted to hack, slash and kill, and I never cared about His opinion!"

The priest readied his merged Excalibur once again, while his invigorated opponents also raised their own weapons in response.

"...Well, that should work for now. Oh, you seem upset, Crow-man. Don't tell me you actually thought you'd be able to break their spirits with something as minor as the death of a little, insignificant God?"

The boy's mockery hit Kokabiel very close to home. And he lost all the patience he had.

"ENOUGH! An inferior being like you should just keel over and die!"

Generating a huge light spear, he darted towards the human at incredible speed.

Even so, Orochi was ready.

While Kokabiel was monologuing, he had prepared what he planned to be the final strike. With his right arm's muscles bulging, and lightning circling around the limb, his last and strongest move was charged and ready to be unleashed.

Matching Kokabiel's speed with Rote Linie, he gathered as much air as he could around his right hand, enclosing it within a Himmelskugel.

"DISAPPEAR, MAGICIAN!"

 **"BERGSCHNEIDER!"**

 ***CRAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSHHH!***

Their clash emanated shockwaves strong enough to easily destroy the barrier surrounding the academy.

And the clock was still ticking.

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **The first part is an interaction I wanted to try out between Orochi and Kokabiel, where they get distracted by Raynare's transformation and they decide to just sit there and discuss it for a bit, forgetting they're supposed to fight. Not much to discuss here, it's another one of my experimentations and if you don't like it I won't get offended.**

 **Following that is the reveal from Kokabiel. The potential threat of the Primals has been explored a bit last chapter, and having that power be bound to God, and then released upon his death, was the best substitute I could come up with in regards to "proof that God is dead". Also, the Cadre is immediately shot down by Orochi with an answer that pretty much amounts to "Irrelevant, stop wasting time.", which I find funny but that might be just me.**

 **This is mostly another transition chapter, which is why I have very little to say, to be honest. You might notice that this is another low point of the story, and that this time I was unable to do anything about it. Sorry about that, I tried my best to figure something out and this time I came up short. :(**

 **Next time, something actually interesting happens. I spoiled it by mistake last chapter, but I'll repeat it here for those that missed my fuck-up:**

 **The fated encounter between man and god.**

 **I kinda need to know how messy this arc is getting with these last few chapters. Please review, I actually really need it this time.**

 **Anyway, thank you for reading, and see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	30. Arc 3 Chapter 8

**Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.**

 **The "10 days" thing seems to be working out for the moment. Which is interesting because I didn't expect it to, considering we're talking about me, hahaha. Might be a coincidence, we'll see how this plays out.**

 **Before we start, I want to ramble about something completely unrelated to up the word count, just because I feel like it.**

 **I'm a fan of Devil May Cry, that series of VGs is lit. Sadly I won't be able to play DMC5 due to lack of console, but those of you who like me are fans have surely heard about the giant mess that was the release of Dante's theme for the game.**

 **You see, after all this time, I had decided to listen to it only yesterday, and compared it to Nero's theme which I had equally null knowledge about. There were two things that I realized afterwards:**

 **1) Holy shit, they were right. Dante was butchered, but fortunately it looks like Capcom will try to address the issue, since the song has been removed from Youtube.**

 **2) On the contrary, Nero's theme is not only fucking amazing, but with a few edits you could slap it in front of an appropriate anime's episode and no one would bat an eyelash. Or at least that's my opinion; regardless, it's the first time that I get this feeling from a song that isn't even Japanese. It was quite the experience, I recommend checking Devil Trigger out!**

 **End of ramble, back to fanfictions. Today we'll see the aftermath of Orochi and Kokabiel's final clash, and delve a bit into our protagonist's past.**

 **I'll see you at the bottom.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

Arc 3 Chapter 8 - Deity

'...Ow... What the... hell happened...'

Kamakura Orochi was currently laying on the ground.

He was in immense pain, and felt incredibly weak.

'Did I... win... I... don't remember...'

It was an odd sensation, the one he felt in that moment. He felt his body lighter, but heavier at the same time. It didn't make much sense to him.

A building was towering over his body laying on the hard ground. He could faintly hear the sounds of battle, and occasionally even Raynare's loud and distorted screams.

'...Right, she's gone out of control... They probably can't stop her on their own...'

I need to get up.

That was his thought, filled with determination.

Ready to put some effort towards the simple act of standing up, he put some strength in his right arm.

Only to find out that that limb wasn't where it was supposed to be.

'...Eh?'

He slowly turned his head left and right as he laid, perplexed at his current predicament. To his far right, he noticed something.

 _His amputated right arm was laying some distance away in a pool of blood._

'...Ah... right... now I remember...'

He was laying in a pool of blood himself, which most likely had come out of the stump to which his arm was previously attached.

 _'...I lost...'_

Memories started to emerge in his mind.

He had calculated that big spear of light's power perfectly.

As he predicted, his Bergschneider was threatening to break Kokabiel's weapon. He had overpowered him, he was sure of it.

But then... _That spear stopped being solid all of a sudden._

He didn't predict that change. After seeing Raynare's Fragments in action so many times during training, he had taken for granted that a spear of light, while being able to separate into multiple pieces, couldn't change its own physical state on the fly.

As Orochi was trying to break the spear, Kokabiel had somehow understood his intentions and changed the weapon's consistency. It became more malleable, enough that it slipped past his fist and into his guard, hitting the boy right below his right shoulder. And blowing off his arm, apparently.

As he looked above him, he recognized the building as the one Valper was standing over before he got killed.

Then, he suddenly heard that buzzing again.

Even in his sorry state, Orochi was only mildly annoyed at the entire situation overall, but that obnoxious noise had been bothering him since he entered that warehouse earlier, and he was fed up with it.

What was different this time though was that he could feel the source of the noise being very, very close to where he was.

Straining his remaining arm, he reached over his head. Some kind of rock was literally centimeters from him, and was making a lot of noise for some reason.

'...What kind of rock makes this noise, though?'

As he wondered what in the world was happening, he had grabbed the rock, and brought it close to his face to examine it.

The pale blue surface was currently reflecting his own bloodied face, leading him to the conclusion that it was actually a crystal of some sort.

Some white stuff was swirling within. What it was, Orochi had no idea.

And suddenly, he felt his head and chest burst in atrocious pain.

 **"AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhHh! ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS! STOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"**

Ignoring the fact that he was injured, he started rolling around screaming as loud as he could.

His chest was burning like the hottest of flames.

He found himself unable to form coherent thoughts.

His mind had been invaded by that accursed buzzing noise that had somehow become deafening and painful in his ears.

 **"SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPP!"**

As his heart screamed for mercy just as loudly as his mouth was, as his form was laying there on the ground writhing and pulsing, a tall figure was approaching him.

By that time, Orochi had already subconsciously let go of the crystal, in an attempt to ease the pain.

The figure picked it up and muttered.

"...So many souls in here. And they're all children, too. How cruel..."

That person then laid their eyes on the screaming boy.

She could tell. His soul, chaotic as it was, was resonating with the anguished and regretful voices that were trapped in that crystal. Those voices had triggered _something_ within him, and had sent the boy's soul out of control.

And judging by the _red aura_ surrounding his writhing body, Heaven's Gate wasn't doing anything about it, except trying to make the situation even worse.

She resolved to take care of it immediately.

That woman joined her hands together in prayer, holding the crystal tightly. It then started to shine a bright blue light from within her fingers. It split into countless smaller sparks, which separated from one another and scattered in the reddened sky.

But the boy was still screaming in pain. That could not stand.

"Focus, boy! FOCUS! THEY'RE GONE NOW!"

That woman's powerful voice snapped him out of his self-induced trance.

He was still in incredible pain (the woman concluded that it was because the boy's soul was still trying to stabilize itself), but had regained his bearings enough to take a look at her face.

He suddenly screamed again, but this time in unrestrained and pure anger.

"YASAKATOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

That obnoxious goddess had appeared before him. This was his chance! If he got rid of her, the intimate threat he felt on his person for the past days would vanish!

No more bothersome dreams! No more threats to his sanity, as long as he could erase her there and then!

His murderous thoughts were taking over and he didn't even care.

But despite his best efforts, he was unable to get up. As he was moving around, he had subconsciously strained several of his muscles. His stump had even started to bleed again.

He was so close, though! This time she was here, flesh and bones!

"That's right, I'm here." answered the deity. "I've been observing you for a while, but if this is all you can do, I'm sorely disappointed." she mocked.

"D-Damn you, I swear I will have your head on a stick even if it kills me!"

Unbeknownst to the human, Yasakatome was currently trying to shift his focus away from the immense pain he was feeling by taunting him about his lack of power.

Disregarding the threat to her life, she continued.

"You cannot keep going like this. At this rate, the town will be destroyed."

As Yasakatome spoke those words calmly, she made a dismissive gesture behind her.

Orochi raised his head slightly and turned in the direction she indicated with a puzzled expression, and finally recognized something that had not caught his attention until that very moment.

A gigantic yellow magic circle, easily 50 or more meters large, was shining brightly a few meters away from him.

"You recognize the runes, I hope. With that circle, Kokabiel is trying to blow up the town." explained the goddess as she looked at the circle and its various runes. "He hid this circle behind the building and distracted you all up until now, to prevent you from realizing what the actual threat was. It seems pretty complex too, you probably can't interrupt the spell with what little you know."

She looked back at him.

"Even if you could, you cannot prevent this town's demise. Not in that sorry state of yours."

As the boy was grunting in anger and frustration, Yasakatome made her proposition once again.

"Bind your soul to mine, and I shall grant you salvation. In turn, you will have the power necessary to save your companions as well."

Orochi's body seemed to finally be stable again.

He observed her for a few seconds. While Yasakatome was glad that her proposition seemed to have been acknowledged for once, she had to concede that his silence was currently unnerving her..

He then gave his answer with a feral grin.

 **"I don't need you."**

 ***SLASH!***

Suddenly the wind picked up ferociously around his body, to Yasakatome's surprise. She knew for a fact that the boy had run out of magic, and the situation itself had forced him into a corner. She was sure that he was going to accept, and yet he was still resisting her.

Then she noticed a change within his body. One that filled her with dread.

As he slowly stood up despite his injuries and pains, surrounded by strong winds all around him, she cried out loud.

"Are you out of your mind?! You just _converted part of your soul into magic power!_ Would you go that far just to spite me?"

"WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, WOMAN? I CAN DO THIS WITHOUT YOUR HELP!"

The winds then finally calmed down. Orochi's state didn't seem any different: he was just as injured as he was before, and the only difference was that he was somehow able to move. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the sudden presence of magic power within his body, and the fact that his skin had gone pale, probably a consequence of the lack of blood in his system.

"If I've run out of energy to move my body, I'll just use magic instead! It's that simple!"

Under his whitened skin, his veins and arteries which would normally be perceived in a really pale blue color were turning into a pale green instead.

"WHY DO YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN?"

That shout startled him. Orochi had to admit in his thoughts that hearing _her_ shout out to him in that manner was most unexpected.

"If you go back in there, you're going to die! Your foolish pride will get you killed if the _F_ _orbidden spells_ don't destroy your body first!"

"..."

The boy turned around and walked over to his detached arm laying on the ground. As he picked it up, he spoke calmly.

"I'm not refusing to listen. _I'm refusing to die alone._ Do you think I haven't realized that I'm finished?"

"..."

"If I'm going to croak either way, I'll take down Kokabiel with me. I have everything I need in order to do so." he claimed, lifting his detached arm and throwing a glance at it. "The first step was recovering enough magic power to be able to get back in there in the first place. As for what comes next, you just stand on the sidelines and keep watching. I'll demonstrate... that even someone like you can learn a thing or two from a human like me."

Leaving behind only a trail of blood caused by the drips of red falling from his shoulder, Orochi Kamakura started casually walking back to the battlefield as if it was the most natural thing to do.

As he walked away, he spoke a few more words.

"And the first lesson will be about how I can withstand the weight of those spells. Don't underestimate me."

His muscles were screaming for mercy, but he had ignored those calls and was nonchalantly going to challenge a Cadre for the second time, in a state where he was even weaker than before, unhesitantly leaving a shocked goddess behind.

* * *

 _"Do you know what those are, boy?"_

 _That detestable woman, Annabelle Goenitz, was currently resting on a bed. She had showed him a spell he didn't recognize, a **really** strong one at that, and the backlash had forced her on that bed. It would have taken whole weeks for her to recover (not that Orochi minded), but even in that state she was perfectly capable of giving him orders._

 _In the boy's hand was a stack of papers, with several depictions of peculiar magic circles surrounded by notes of various sizes left by that woman. She was referring to those papers and their contents as she spoke._

 _"No, ma'am." answered Orochi somberly. "I've only taken a look, and... these circles seem incredibly dangerous at first glance. So many of these spells require an enormous amount of magic power... Frankly speaking, even you don't have such a vast magic core. Even if you did, the basic requirements are also just as insane."_

 _"Your analysis is correct." said the woman."Those are spells that a normal magician cannot perform. No human being in this world is able to convert that much magic power."_

 _"...Why did you go this far to show me one of those spells? I can't reproduce even the simpler ones."_

 _"Don't remind me, stupid brat."_

 _The bitterness and hatred in her voice was particularly evident in that last sentence._

 _"On paper," she continued, "you should have been able to perform them. Your grandfather's ability would have allowed you to ease your way into them, and you would have eventually become someone that can cast them with no repercussions at all. Your body composition would also be of aid in order to "not die" when you cast them. At least that last part did come into fruition, if only partially."_

 _"..."_

 _Most likely, she was referring to the fact that he had not died from the abuse yet, due to that "ability" that her mother would often mention. Not that he understood it in any way..._

 _"That, boy, is a summary of my research on **"spells a human can't perform"**. You are incapable of following through with what I had initially planned but you're still useful."_

 _She lifted a finger weakly and pointed at the boy._

 _"While I recover, I want you to read the content of those papers word by word, and memorize all the circles within. Once you're done, you will come see me here and you will burn those papers in my presence."_

 _"...Yes, ma'am. But what about the contents of your actual research, since this is just a "summary"? Are you going to burn those yourself?"_

 _Normally, one would think that in such a cruel family Orochi would be unable to even ask questions like that without being beaten. However, he was cut some slack when it came to the amount of knowledge he had about magic. In only 2 years (in other words, since he was 4 years old), he had learned many things from his mother about magic, and could hold a conversation about advanced magic theories with no problem, which had even earned him the grudging respect of the White Serpent fanatics._

 _Of course, the problem with that was that... it wasn't enough for her. At some point, Orochi had even stopped calling her "Mother", probably because he had decided he didn't want to get attached to such a person in any way, and had started calling her "Ma'am", like soldiers would whenever they addressed a female superior._

 _Annabelle didn't care either way, so she had let that one go._

 _"I have yet to decide." she answered. "As you probably are imagining, this is an emergency procedure. I've given the same exact orders to your father, even though he is no magician. I want to be certain that those spells aren't lost to the river of time. You and him are physically incapable of forgetting events, which allows me to use you two as failsafes."_

 _"Are we in danger, ma'am?"_

 _"...Not for the time being. But if the wrong people approach us, we might be. I might even be forced to rely on those people's power one day, although I would prefer not to, and I don't want them to have leverage over me and the White Serpent if that happens. My research needs to stay in safe hands, and not even you can fail to do something this simple. Go, and read away."_

 _"Understood."_

 _The 6-years old young boy made to exit the room. As he left his mother behind, he barely managed to hear a whisper coming from the woman, who was most likely talking to herself._

 _"Why couldn't you become a **Magic God** , stupid brat..."_

* * *

 **Welcome to the bottom.**

 **So a bunch of stuff happens here. First of all, I saw no reason to remove or change things about the Excalibur Project's existence because even in normal DxD it wasn't exactly tied tightly to Kiba. What I mean by this is, he was a failure just like his companions as far as that "light compatibility" was concerned, so removing the character doesn't make much of a difference in this case.**

 **After that, I thought about Orochi's current state, and decided that an amputated arm wasn't enough. So I kept the "light crystal" idea and did a little something with it just for fun. I'm such a sadist! XD**

 **Yasakatome appears to bail Orochi out, since he would have damn near killed himself eventually, had he not received any help. Of course, by this point our "hero" is already unable to think straight and his mind and body have been messed with by the crystal. Right now, only the thirst for revenge occupies his mind, so despite his conditions he still refuses to bond with Yasakatome, and gives her the ultimate "fuck you" by discarding part of his soul to obtain magic power, as if to say "no deal, you can't have it". He does this because he's convinced that he still has a way to win. What will it be, I wonder?**

 **Finally, I introduce the concepts of Forbidden spells and Magic God during a flashback. Magic Gods will be significant eventually; it's still too early to explain these concepts properly, but I'll get there before the end of the month, don't worry. Also Annabelle is an asshole, but you probably have already reached that conclusion.**

 **That's all for today. Next time, the tables turn.**

 **Thank you for reading, see you soon.**

 **Ciao!**


	31. Update: Going on Hiatus once more

**Hello, Vinzelles here.**

 **Sorry, no chapter today. In fact, I'm here to tell you something important.**

 **I'm currently stuck on this story. Again. I never feel like writing anything on it lately...**

 **So I decided I'm going to try and dedicate some time to an entirely different franchise, and see if I can't get back my will to write.**

 **I'm going to experiment with the Toaru-verse next, and I've already published the prologue for my new story, which I named "ID Project"! For the details about how I plan to handle that story, please go check it out. Everything you need to know is written there.**

 **APtF will go on hiatus until I figure out what I want to do with it. I guarantee that the story isn't dead, though! I have several chapters ready for it, and half of the next arc already written.**

 **I had just... decided to focus on something else for the past two months. Namely, my Youtube channel and my temporary job, the latter of which I've started about two weeks ago and will keep me occupied until April. So there's the reason for my lack of uploads.**

 **There's not much else to say. My shifts are about to get messy, too, so I don't know what the future holds for my content creation in general, be it videos or fanfics.**

 **But I want you all to know that, just like it was said in the latest Spider-man movie, no matter how many times I fall, I will always get back up again.**

 **Thank you so much for your patience. I will still try to upload some chapters for this story, at least finish the current arc.**

 **But until I say otherwise, A Path to Freedom is going to go on hiatus for an unknown amount of time.**

 **Again, thank you for your support. Ciao!**

 **\- Vinzelles**


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